Timeline for Techniques to re-factor garbage and maintain sanity?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
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| Apr 4, 2012 at 4:10 | history | post merged (destination) | |||
| Dec 16, 2011 at 9:22 | comment | added | Péter Török | @Charles, I agree that Joel likes to make bombastic, overgeneralizing statements. That's why I wrote it is usually - not always - a bad idea. But specifically in this case, where the OP is the single developer and (s)he has limited time, I do think it would be a bad idea. | |
| Dec 15, 2011 at 19:51 | comment | added | Igby Largeman | @PéterTörök. Fair enough. I've read Joel's article and don't agree that you should "never" rewrite from scratch, nor that it's the "single worst strategic mistake a software company can make". In fact such sensational statements are almost always untrue, but legions of gullible readers will continue to think that anything written on a popular blog must be gospel. Each to his own. | |
| Dec 15, 2011 at 17:04 | comment | added | Péter Török | -1 for several reasons. Refactoring may or may not include "breaking a piece of code down into its component parts". Improving terrible code is refactoring (if done properly, one small step at a time, backed by unit tests). Rewriting from scratch is a whole different story, and Joel explains better than me why it is usually a bad idea. | |
| Dec 15, 2011 at 16:59 | comment | added | Igby Largeman | @MaR: Yes, I'm perhaps being overly literal. I often see people referring to rewriting as refactoring, and that bugs me. In this case, judging by AgentKC's own account of the state of the code, it sounds like a scratch-rewrite would be advisable. | |
| Dec 15, 2011 at 16:53 | comment | added | MaR | While you are right in the original meaning of those words, code refactoring nowadays is "altering of the code without changing its "external" behavior" and "rewriting" means typically rewriting from scratch (parts or whole code). | |
| Dec 15, 2011 at 16:47 | comment | added | Igby Largeman | Paper. All but the most trivial development tasks should begin with design (planning). And in this case you have the advantage of learning from the mistakes you made the first time around. | |
| Dec 15, 2011 at 16:43 | comment | added | TheEnigmaMachine | If I am to rewrite it, am I better off to just jump in and rewrite it or sit down and plan everything out on paper first? | |
| Dec 15, 2011 at 16:41 | history | answered | Igby Largeman | CC BY-SA 3.0 |