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> I gathered current requirements and implemented them in the simplest way possible. If you can get complete current requirements, that's fine. The issue with
by jbert 13y ago
> I gathered current requirements and implemented them in the simplest way possible.
If you can get complete current requirements, that's fine. The issue with this is "all the stuff which falls through the cracks".
In the example from the post, some code to "handle case where internet explorer is not installed". That the sort of thing which would often be missed in requirements gathering, discovered in the field and then patched into the codebase.
Sure - if you have one of:
* close-enought-to-perfect requirements
* close-enought-to-perfect regression tests
then a rewrite isn't too hard. But achieving either of the above is something I'd consider a hard problem.
Do you have a particular way of getting signoff that your current requirements are "complete"? That would be worth knowing :-)
- kyllo 13y agoYeah, my favorite definition of "legacy code" is "code that has poor test coverage." The regression test suite should literally implement all of the business requirements, and then the two become the same thing (if there's no test for it, it's not a requirement, and vice versa), so then you can work on the codebase with confidence, and it's therefore not legacy code, no matter how old it is or what old school language it's written in.