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> I could rewrite my thing 5 times But in 20 years... 1. It is many people's thing, not your thing. 2. It is inter-dependent with code you can't rewrite 5 ti

> I could rewrite my thing 5 times But in 20 years... 1. It is many people's thing, not your thing. 2. It is inter-dependent with code you can't rewrite 5 times 3. You're probably no longer there anyway. So I'll have the generalized solution, thank you. Of course, it's even better if you can use an already well-established FOSS solution, since that's likely to see improvements over time which may be applicable to your code.

hot_gril 4y ago
In 20 years, it's gone, the business requirements are unpredictably different, probably the language I wrote it in is gone too, maybe the entire company as well. I'm writing application code, not a kernel or something, but even kernel pieces have API boundaries and can be replaced. An API can live 20 years, so I take that far more seriously.
foobarian 4y ago
> 2. It is inter-dependent with code you can't rewrite 5 times We have a CSV parser library in our codebase. It’s probably from 2005 or so. I’m sure it was a good idea at the time but at this point it has resisted replacement because of dozens of legacy reports that rely on bugs or quirks in it (mostly around quoting).