Hacker News Reader

I am surprised at the tone here as well as that if the article.

If you view refactoring as this risky, you are I imagine using a dynamically typed language with automated tests few and far between.

In a statically typed language and with a decent automated test suite, refactoring is just another coding activity.

It sounds like people out there are terrified of going near their code with a 10’ pole. That is heart breaking to see.

View on HN

Maybe don’t assume other people are “wrong”? A strongly typed codebase in a larger system almost certainly has untyped boundaries (HTTP, JSON, SQL, etc.) and likely to data driven with combinatorial complexity. Going into such rewrites with a great deal of respect for any existing code that “works” is very wise.

I guess we should all stop fixing bugs and creating new feature and enhancements.

My God - if we touch the code, something might break!

Sorry for the sarcasm, but this attitude of fear is so pervasive and unnecessary.

Seriously, isn’t this our job?

Respect, not fear. I chose the word intentionally. Respecting the working system means investing a little before going in to redo. That’s all.

No everyone is right for such work, which is fine because they are often well suited for other equally important things.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com