I inherited code that contained files that were last updated in 1997
That isn’t a bad thing. On the contrary, according to the open-closed principle, you should strive for writing code you never have to touch again.
There’s a difference between ” it hasn’t changed because it doesn’t need to be changed” and ” it hasn’t changed because it’s impossible to predict the impact of any change, and no one wants to be responsible for things breaking”.
I was once spelunking a file that hadn’t been touched in like 7 years, and there was a weird line where it was adding 2 to the index for seemingly no reason. The comment was like
// Sam: not sure why this is off by 2 here. See ticket #12345 for discussionWhatever issue tracking software it was referencing was no longer used, so that ticket was gone, and who TF is Sam?
I haven’t touched those files. The code works, I don’t need to change it. I’ve mostly been working on the later additions.
Ah yes, the “fuck it, no-one is going to use this” code.
Or the “too critical and poorly documented so nobody dares change it” code. Good Luck!
I get to say that I’ve truly made it as a programmer. The reason is that I wrote around 75 lines of Rust, came back a year later, and I could see exactly how it works.
In case you’re wondering, it’s a command line Slack client for sending notifications. Colored highlights and everything.
One title would have been enough.
Is that…The 7th Guest?
Can’t relate, unless you’re editing
.gitignoreorLICENSEfiles for some reason.
