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I definitely agree. It's quite easy to look at a large codebase and feel like it's way more complex than it needs to be. That line of thinking often leads to re

I definitely agree. It's quite easy to look at a large codebase and feel like it's way more complex than it needs to be. That line of thinking often leads to rewrites, and in my experience rewrites often lead to newfound understanding of why the codebase was complex in the first place.

TeMPOraL 6y ago
True. I've learned to resist the urge to rewrite code just because it feels too ugly/complex to me - except in the cases where I know I can get tangible benefits (performance, better API) and the scope of rewrite is limited and guarded by extensive tests. It's true that some of the cruft accrues because of changing requirements and the ongoing process of learning that is a good chunk of our work. And yet accepting that, I still can't shake the feeling that things are more complex than they should be. That also applies to the code I'm writing myself (which is immune from the "rewrite because I could do it better" urge)!