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Yes, this point of view is well known and well documented.

But the opposite may have some weight too. I think I read somewhere that Google codebase had been rewritten from scratch. Maybe it was early enough, because I suppose rewriting it today would be painful. Are there any other successful rewrite from scratch stories? Maybe vim?

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Google doesn't "rewrite" things in the traditional sense.. they develop new versions of old systems when the old system has reached the limit (or is just grossly inefficient). The new systems generally are not at all architecturally similar. I don't think I've ever heard of a rewrite "because the code was messy" or anything other "it can't do X and we need X".

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