The article discusses key insights from a talk on software development philosophies aimed at junior developers, emphasizing the dangers of ground-up rewrites. While sometimes attractive, these rewrites often signal underlying issues like technical debt and code complexity. The author argues against waiting until a rewrite seems necessary, urging developers to recognize early warning signs such as difficulties in code changes and onboarding. The text advocates for a balance between adding new features and consolidating existing ones to manage complexity effectively in development.
Avoid, at all costs, arriving at a scenario where the ground-up rewrite starts to look attractive.
By the time the ground-up rewrite starts to seem like a good idea, avoidable mistakes have already been made.
Warning signs to watch for: compounding technical debt. Increasing difficulty in making seemingly simple changes to code.
Compounding complexity must be fought at every turn. Alternate between phases of expansion (new features) and consolidation.
Collection
[
|
...
]