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A better term than "debt" might be "inertia", technical inertia. Every line adds inertia to a code base, because it adds complexity. Some of that inertia is nec
by blueyes 6y ago
A better term than "debt" might be "inertia", technical inertia. Every line adds inertia to a code base, because it adds complexity. Some of that inertia is necessary, and some is accidental. As context changes, or someone attempts to put the code to a secondary use, the inertia becomes apparent. But the perception of inertia changes depending on how much present demands on the code differ from past demands. One person's debt is another's well-oiled machine.
- rightbyte 6y ago"Inertia" implies that the project will keep its speed, the opposite of what you want to signal. How about "rust" or "cruft".
- blueyes 6y agoRust is good, too, because it alludes to external factors that affect the code and decrease its usefulness through no fault of its own. There is no stainless code... Re: inertia, a lot of old code has no speed at all, which is kind of the point here. Inertia implies stasis as much as speed. If you wanted to emphasize speed, you could use "momentum", I suppose. But I think the idea of inertia, and inert code that requires energy to change, is a more useful analogy than debt.