A long-lived code base will end up containing different conventions for doing things based on the era the code was written in. I’m OK with that, the later code

A long-lived code base will end up containing different conventions for doing things based on the era the code was written in. I’m OK with that, the later code will (should) have, per screenful, higher clarity, more functionality and fewer bugs. I feel like there’s probably a good analogy with evolution of human languages and cultures around them. How many of us can read Beowulf in the original?