Comments on: Working with an old code base http://felix-cat.com/blog/2010/01/17/working-with-an-old-code-base/ Blog for the Felix CAT tool Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:06:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: admin http://felix-cat.com/blog/2010/01/17/working-with-an-old-code-base/comment-page-1/#comment-3880 admin Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:01:28 +0000 http://felix-cat.com/blog/?p=147#comment-3880 @Jason If you've got a buggy mess that was never working, then a rewrite makes more sense. As Brooks said: plan to throw one away -- you will anyway. But when you've got working software, it's almost always far more productive to get it into maintainable shape than to start over from scratch. @Jason

If you’ve got a buggy mess that was never working, then a rewrite makes more sense. As Brooks said: plan to throw one away — you will anyway.

But when you’ve got working software, it’s almost always far more productive to get it into maintainable shape than to start over from scratch.

]]> By: Jason http://felix-cat.com/blog/2010/01/17/working-with-an-old-code-base/comment-page-1/#comment-3841 Jason Mon, 18 Jan 2010 02:45:12 +0000 http://felix-cat.com/blog/?p=147#comment-3841 On the other hand, the first version of Half Life was salvaged by a complete rewrite. I suspect the rules are: 1. if you are racing against competitors (like Netscape or WordPerfect were) do not do the rewrite. 2. if you don't fully understand the original code then do not do the rewrite. 3. if you wrote the original code base while you were a copmlete noob and have learned alot in the process, do the rewrite if the schedule can be slipped. On the other hand, the first version of Half Life was salvaged by a complete rewrite.

I suspect the rules are:

1. if you are racing against competitors (like Netscape or WordPerfect were) do not do the rewrite.

2. if you don’t fully understand the original code then do not do the rewrite.

3. if you wrote the original code base while you were a copmlete noob and have learned alot in the process, do the rewrite if the schedule can be slipped.

]]> By: Sako http://felix-cat.com/blog/2010/01/17/working-with-an-old-code-base/comment-page-1/#comment-3838 Sako Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:32:26 +0000 http://felix-cat.com/blog/?p=147#comment-3838 After reading this, I was reminded of Joel Spolsky's "<a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html">Things You Should Never Do, Part I</a>," in which he describes how deciding to do a complete rewrite ultimately doomed Netscape 6 before it was even released. The unfortunate decision to start again from scratch has had undesirable effects on many great applications, but I'm glad to hear that Felix will be spared such a fate! After reading this, I was reminded of Joel Spolsky’s “Things You Should Never Do, Part I,” in which he describes how deciding to do a complete rewrite ultimately doomed Netscape 6 before it was even released.

The unfortunate decision to start again from scratch has had undesirable effects on many great applications, but I’m glad to hear that Felix will be spared such a fate!

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