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I couldn't agree more. This a sure path to disaster and unhappiness. Fixing code requires understanding what it is doing in all except the most basic examples.
by bluejekyll 11y ago
I couldn't agree more. This a sure path to disaster and unhappiness. Fixing code requires understanding what it is doing in all except the most basic examples.
Unless you have a firm set of tests, or strict API constraints defined, don't ever follow this rule. It will only lead to a sad tail of how you created this huge bug that deleted all the customers data because you though this Boolean wasn't used anymore, so you removed it. It makes for a funny story, but a really bad couple of weeks.
- mywittyname 11y agoWorst case, as you said, but the best case is...nothing. You're literally spending a bunch of time doing a high risk activity to produce nothing of value. It might be easier to read, but if the original developer is long gone, then it's likely nobody will look at it again for years (unless you broke something and the next guy rolls back your changes in VCS). Taking on a foolish refactoring project is a rite of passage for developers.