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> Our job as software engineers is not to write new software: it’s to apply changes to existing software. Well, I could stop reading right there.
by g051051 4y ago
> Our job as software engineers is not to write new software: it’s to apply changes to existing software.
Well, I could stop reading right there.
- simonw 4y agoI probably should have expanded that point: I was trying to be pithy. What I meant is that we spend 95% of our time making changes to software - adding new features, fixing bugs etc. Starting a new project from scratch is something we might do a few times a year at most, but changing an existing project is a thing we do every working day.
- g051051 4y agoAdding new features is writing new software in my book.
- unionpivo 4y agoMost developers add new features by modifying/adding to an existing code/repo most of the time. Hell even when you create new project, a lot of development environments provide basic scaffolding, that you then modify (or sometimes remove 95% of).
- cratermoon 4y agoWhat do you call writing -2000 lines of code? https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Negative_2000_Lines_Of_Code.txt https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Negative_2000_Li...
- g051051 4y agoI call it "LOC is a terrible metric".
- khpart 4y agoIt's Python, which is a churnfest by design. Other communities have this problem to a lesser degree.