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My number one symptom of rotting design is a lot simpler, I keep postponing touching the code... If I do this for more than a couple of days it must be really r
by marcus 18y ago
My number one symptom of rotting design is a lot simpler, I keep postponing touching the code... If I do this for more than a couple of days it must be really rotten.
- mixmax 18y agoOh man, by your definition I have some seriously stinking code...
- marcus 18y agoNot necessarily, the question is do you procrastinate on parts of it significantly more than the rest, if you do that part probably does stink.
- sunkencity 18y agonobody likes to work with legacy code... managing to work with legacy code and without a steady stream of complaints is what separates a good programmer from a noob.
- marcus 18y agoActually that is what separates the professional from the hobbyist (I've seen both bad professional programmers aka 9-5ers and amazing hobbyists), and when I work professionally both in my startup and in a previous life as an employee I put on my waders and jump right into the thick smelly bog. But especially when you take a couple of years of vacation and work for fun on projects that interest you, you find out that sense of ickiness is probably the best indicator of code rot.
- LogicHoleFlaw 18y agoOne skill that I'm growing to appreciate as I become more experienced is the ability to find a problem and determine if the best action is to do a minimally invasive change, a workaround, or a full restructuring. I don't always make the right call but I'm getting better at it.
- wallflower 18y agoI believe this was mentioned in the Pragmatic Programmer. They used the analogy of broken windows. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows