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> There is a significant gap between how software is currently developed in this space versus how it should be developed. The vast majority of genomics-related software is not written with speed or reliability in mind.

True, but working in academia is very VERY different working in a tech/product company.

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> This state of affairs makes it difficult for anyone other than the original author to contribute to these code bases, further cementing the one-maintainer policy.

Who wants to fix other peoples code mess? This is a no-no if you want to promote a job opening.

I do. It's my bread-and-butter. I call myself a code janitor. I live by books like "Working Effectively With Legacy Code" and "Kill it With Fire". But I have my limits. Academic code has.. coded, in the medical sense, and it can't be revived. Put a DNR on it.

I've seen this also in several software systems that started life in a CS grad department. (Not all the same university.)

The original authors' quirks get enshrined in the code base, and its neigh impossible to fix until they leave the company that commercialized it.

sorta like the original calculus thesis.

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