3 ms·

The problem with big bang rewrites is you end up falling in every trap the original developers fell into.

by cntlzw 9y ago

protomyth 9y ago
It is amazing how much of our profession's knowledge ends up as a odd if statement buried deep in the code to some method or stored procedure dealing with an edge case that gets missed in the big bang rewrite. Its also amazing how much money the failure to preserve that knowledge can cost. I wonder if its time for professional software archeologists?
- cntlzw 9y ago
  Writing software is still "creative" and less "engineering". There aren't many ways to build a bridge but many ways to express yourself in language. Natural language or computer language that is. Add this to "business requirements" and you get the big pile of manure we walk in every day. Like how does the knowledge of IEEE754 help me if the requirement is to sum up some value of the last three days, unless the last three days are on a weekend or holiday. (ok, stupid example) The point is domain language does not translate to computer language very well and a programmer is not a domain expert. He is .. just a programmer, a creative programmer, and we are millions each doing their thing a little different.
  - protomyth 9y ago
    Strangely, at all the big corp jobs I've been at, the good programmers have become domain experts as part of the job. How else could they have a real feel for what the business needed and if the code was correct?
    - cntlzw 9y ago
      Oh yes, I totally agree with you on this. But it is a long road to become a domain expert. Don't forget people eventually leave jobs and you get new hires. Leaves lot of room for errors.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  > I wonder if its time for professional software archeologists? No, but it is time to make a real effort to teach the lessons learned to newcomers. I really feel that as an industry we completely fail at that. Blog posts such as these are my feeble attempt at trying to make a contribution to solving this problem.

The problem with big bang rewrites is you end up falling in every trap the original developers fell into.

by cntlzw 9y ago

The problem with big bang rewrites is you end up falling in every trap the original developers fell into.

It is amazing how much of our profession's knowledge ends up as a odd if statement buried deep in the code to some method or stored procedure dealing with an edge case that gets missed in the big bang rewrite. Its also amazing how much money the failure to preserve that knowledge can cost. I wonder if its time for professional software archeologists?

cntlzw 9y ago
Writing software is still "creative" and less "engineering". There aren't many ways to build a bridge but many ways to express yourself in language. Natural language or computer language that is. Add this to "business requirements" and you get the big pile of manure we walk in every day. Like how does the knowledge of IEEE754 help me if the requirement is to sum up some value of the last three days, unless the last three days are on a weekend or holiday. (ok, stupid example) The point is domain language does not translate to computer language very well and a programmer is not a domain expert. He is .. just a programmer, a creative programmer, and we are millions each doing their thing a little different.
- protomyth 9y ago
  Strangely, at all the big corp jobs I've been at, the good programmers have become domain experts as part of the job. How else could they have a real feel for what the business needed and if the code was correct?
  - cntlzw 9y ago
    Oh yes, I totally agree with you on this. But it is a long road to become a domain expert. Don't forget people eventually leave jobs and you get new hires. Leaves lot of room for errors.
jacquesm 9y ago
> I wonder if its time for professional software archeologists? No, but it is time to make a real effort to teach the lessons learned to newcomers. I really feel that as an industry we completely fail at that. Blog posts such as these are my feeble attempt at trying to make a contribution to solving this problem.