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one skill I've learned working on/deprecating and replacing legacy code is what I'd call Code Archaeology: the practice of identifying what a legacy system does
by 8note 7y ago
one skill I've learned working on/deprecating and replacing legacy code is what I'd call Code Archaeology: the practice of identifying what a legacy system does given some edge case; why it does it; whether that's the right thing to do, given that the ecosystem has changed significantly; and whether that section can be safely turned off.
I haven't seen the results of putting that on a resume yet though.
- burnto 7y agoAuthor Vernor Vinge describes a future "programmer–archaeologist" role in his books. The idea being that humans just keep building layer upon layer of abstractions and systems, and in the distant future there's value in exploring, understanding, and potentially modifying the older layers.