3 ms·

You could also gate experimental code behind feature flags which aren't set in prod

• weinzierl 8y ago
  I agree that feature flags can be a solution sometimes. The presentation and the paper I linked to in my question discusses this, but they also mention large-scale refactorings and this is where I don't see how feature flags can help. For example: How do they untangle a wad of code that is large enough that it takes longer than a few days and more than a single developer to get the code back into a state that is acceptable for trunk? The changes required for this kind of refactorings can be all over the place, regardless of any organizational boundaries in your code. I can't see how changes of this nature can be put behind feature flags.
  • richardwhiuk 8y ago
    You don't do that - you lots of small incremental refactors. I think Google also have tools to make a large refactor into a small change. (i.e. you create the new API, migrate stuff to use it, deprecate the old one, migrate the rest, retire the old one).
  • ThaJay 8y ago
    - build an interface to the code to be changed - make all code that uses said code use the interface instead - build the feature switch into the interface
  • VikingCoder 8y ago
    Try like hell to use dependency injection in the first place.
  • Cedricgc 8y ago
    https://trunkbaseddevelopment.com/branch-by-abstraction/ https://trunkbaseddevelopment.com/branch-by-abstraction/