Things You Should Never Do, Part I

What you should do is write code in a way where rewriting parts of it is actually possible. If you don't do it that way you will eventually have to rewrite the whole thing anyways at some point.

And this is done by drawing in the right amount of borders in the right spot. I am not saying microservices, but you need clear interfaces between your different layers.

Rewriting is absolutely a chance to get things right but:

1. Never rewrite because you cannot understand the code anymore, or can't be bothered to read it

2. Never rewrite the whole thing at once

Then again, I know companies that never got of the ground because of being pivoted of a failed code-base from hell, that only became a success when they bit the bullet and forced a blank slate rewrite.

Sometimes the repository is full of hard earned tacit knowledge, other times it is just a pile of stinking manure.

Oh like the Windows NT rewrite of Win 95, or the Win 95 rewrite of Windows 3.1.

Should have “(2000)” in there title.

(2000). Hah, that's before The War(which one? Russia-Ukraine War, Iraq, Afghanistan? Syria? Before any of those!), before Covid, before Trump, Brexit, Obama, the Bush admin which you thought was worst government ever, before 9/11, before the catastrophal Afghanistan Exit, and even before the Afghanistan invasion!

Tech-wise, it's before social media (no Twitter, Facebook, IG, MySpace, Friendster) and I think even before the term "smartphone".

That's a classic.