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It is kind of mentioned in the article but I think a lot of developers don't realise that there isn't just good code and bad code, there is a whole spectrum and
by lbriner 5y ago
It is kind of mentioned in the article but I think a lot of developers don't realise that there isn't just good code and bad code, there is a whole spectrum and the position on this spectrum is dictated by skill, experience, time pressure, money pressure and shifting requirements (assuming you ever had any!).
We pine for the perfect green field where all things are good but there are probably zero companies where all developers are expert, where the solutions are all unique and unambiguous, where the trade-off between maintainability/performance and speed of coding are all completely set in stone, where nothing has ever changed in strategy, framework, etc. where no framework update has ever broken something and needed some dirty hack to work around it, where you don't have managers come and go who are not 100% helpful or useful.
So better to look forwards always. Don't try and fix what is there unless it needs changing to move forwards. A lot of the code I have wanted to rewrite in my current company will be toast in the next 2 years as we are writing new apps so just don't lose sleep over it.
- treespace88 5y agoThank you. Developers like you are few and far between. I find it painful when others devs constantly re write working code, instead of moving forward. It’s so easy to trash what is there. Very few have the maturity to work with existing code without complaint.
- runlevel1 5y agoIt's important to have empathy for those that came before you, but I do also try to be mindful of those that come after. A comment explaining "why?" A quick refactor of your patch to make it easier to understand. A small README update. Those kind of little things add up and pay dividends. Best write code with empathy for those that come after you -- including your future self.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]