Refactoring in a large code base

[Marko Rauhamaa]

Rustom Mody <rustompmody at gmail.com>:

> On Friday, January 22, 2016 at 1:59:15 PM UTC+5:30, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
>> I've been there. I think the root problem is to have a code base
>> that's so large and complex.
>
> Bizarre comment... Are you saying large and complex code-bases should
> non-exist?

Why, yes, I am.

>> It *could* be avoided if the engineering director only cared.
>
> Some problems are trivially solvable... for those who have the knowhow
> Some problems are inherently hard but easily detectable as such...
> once again for those who have the knowhow And some are literally (and
> ironically trivially) unsolvable

The knowhow, vision and skill is apparently very rare. On the product
management side, we have the famous case of Steve Jobs, who simply told
the engineers to go back to the drawing boards when he didn't like the
user experience. Most others would have simply surrendered to the
mediocre designs and shipped the product.

We need similar code sanity management. Developers are given much too
much power to mess up the source code. That's why "legacy" is considered
a four-letter word among developers.


Marko