Here is a question for you all. I understand how Programming a program from scratch could take a serious amount of time from a month through to 6 and onwards. However I question the updating of the code to increase the program rating.

It is fact that recoding a program to increase its efficiency doesn't take months, it can take weeks so how come in SR the rules are not given for upgrading a program. It would be much easier for a Hacker to upgrade the programs he has already got than to build completely new ones. Yes some of you might say that its easier to go buy your programs but if that’s the case why have the programming rules etc.

Yep, I got the source code to MS Word right here all ready for me to refactor and optimize, came in the box along with MS Office....

I think that is just a gap right now in the RAW. Same thing with upgrading hardware...they have costs for upgrading to a 6 System, but it doesn't specifically say if that is the same cost going 1 to 6 as it would be from 5 to 6.

The hacker in my group just decided to by his programs at the level he would use. Looking at the time involved, I didn't feel it was realistic that he would have written all his own code.

I think we just have to wait until the companion rulebook for matrix stuff comes out.

It's a fact that even a minor update of a badly written/designed program can take longer than rewriting the whole program. But, for the sake of argument, I'll assume the programs are in fact well designed and well written.

I guess we have to wait for unwired for more elaborate rules to write programs. Until then I suggest:
-you need to have the sourcecode (you either have programmed the program yourself, or paid a lot of money for the sourcecode, or got it from a run. Until rating 3 I would even throw in a free sourcecode with bought programs, since the are basically common )
-threshold on the extended test is (new rating - old rating)*2, time intervall same as in the book