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But even if you know what is written, good luck making that PHP 3 website keep up with times.

Or that old C library written for old versions of OS/other libs.

Agree, but you are giving a more extreme example.

Most rewrites I saw was "wow, this Java code from the old team is a mess, let's rewrite it and, in a couple years, the new devs will think the same about our rewrite."

I think you're onto something there. It's hard to understand code. So maybe the best way to accomplish that is to rewrite it. That way you will have inhouse people who understand and can maintain the software your business is running on. Once those people are gone it's time for the new recruits to rewrite it again. It's a continuing process.

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