See Chesterton's fence: "The principle that reforms should not be made until the reasoning behind the existing state of affairs is understood." [https://en.wikt

See Chesterton's fence: "The principle that reforms should not be made until the reasoning behind the existing state of affairs is understood." [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Chesterton%27s_fence https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Chesterton%27s_fence] There might not be a particular reason for why things are the way they are. It might have just grown to be this way. I haven't read it but I've heard good things about "Working effectively with legacy code" by Michael Feathers.