Comments on: A little horror story http://www.lixo.org/archives/2005/02/14/a-little-horror-story/ letting the problem solve itself Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:17:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: iain http://www.lixo.org/archives/2005/02/14/a-little-horror-story/#comment-67 iain Tue, 03 May 2005 10:23:10 +0000 http://www.lixo.org/archives/2005/02/14/a-little-horror-story/#comment-67 The worst part is that sometimes, the legacy code is yours... And you're still writing it. AIEEE! THE TENTACLES!!! The worst part is that sometimes, the legacy code is yours…

And you’re still writing it.

AIEEE! THE TENTACLES!!!

]]> By: allan http://www.lixo.org/archives/2005/02/14/a-little-horror-story/#comment-25 allan Wed, 23 Feb 2005 06:17:39 +0000 http://www.lixo.org/archives/2005/02/14/a-little-horror-story/#comment-25 In my experience, what makes this whole situation even more sad, is the fact that the "legacy code" that I've worked with, which is perfectly described by your story, is actually Java code that's only about a year or two old. It's not so much "legacy can be tough to deal with", as "loads of junk code is still being freshly produced in 2005" ... In my experience, what makes this whole situation even more sad, is the fact that the “legacy code” that I’ve worked with, which is perfectly described by your story, is actually Java code that’s only about a year or two old. It’s not so much “legacy can be tough to deal with”, as “loads of junk code is still being freshly produced in 2005″ …

]]> By: Jeremy http://www.lixo.org/archives/2005/02/14/a-little-horror-story/#comment-24 Jeremy Tue, 22 Feb 2005 16:28:36 +0000 http://www.lixo.org/archives/2005/02/14/a-little-horror-story/#comment-24 I feel for you. I just left TW for a local ISV. My first duty, take a large spaghetti/procedural codebase with little test coverage and start making it TDD'ed and CI'd to extend its effective life. Just as hard as taking over the hairy code, is interacting respectfully with the (very nice) principal developers responsible for the ugly code in the first place without putting their backs up. The great advantage of being a consultant is knowing you'll get to leave the engagement sooner or later. I get to own the results of my legacy code. I feel for you. I just left TW for a local ISV. My first duty, take a large spaghetti/procedural codebase with little test coverage and start making it TDD’ed and CI’d to extend its effective life. Just as hard as taking over the hairy code, is interacting respectfully with the (very nice) principal developers responsible for the ugly code in the first place without putting their backs up. The great advantage of being a consultant is knowing you’ll get to leave the engagement sooner or later. I get to own the results of my legacy code.

]]> By: Obie http://www.lixo.org/archives/2005/02/14/a-little-horror-story/#comment-20 Obie Wed, 16 Feb 2005 00:13:21 +0000 http://www.lixo.org/archives/2005/02/14/a-little-horror-story/#comment-20 Hey, you think you have it bad? All the strain of that codebase actually made my notebook die a slow, painful death and I had to get a new one today! :) Hey, you think you have it bad? All the strain of that codebase actually made my notebook die a slow, painful death and I had to get a new one today! :)

]]> By: Marcus Brito http://www.lixo.org/archives/2005/02/14/a-little-horror-story/#comment-19 Marcus Brito Mon, 14 Feb 2005 20:08:22 +0000 http://www.lixo.org/archives/2005/02/14/a-little-horror-story/#comment-19 Sounds a lot like my everyday job on my former employee, excepting the part about the continuous integration machine -- there wasn't any. The fact that I'm still alive proves humans are definitely tough creatures. Sounds a lot like my everyday job on my former employee, excepting the part about the continuous integration machine — there wasn’t any. The fact that I’m still alive proves humans are definitely tough creatures.

]]> By: Jenna http://www.lixo.org/archives/2005/02/14/a-little-horror-story/#comment-18 Jenna Mon, 14 Feb 2005 19:08:00 +0000 http://www.lixo.org/archives/2005/02/14/a-little-horror-story/#comment-18 Well put. I find legacy code hardest to understand/fix/improve on when there are no comments, when the naming schemes are easily misunderstood, and when the "genius" programmers who wrote it first think about backdoor ways to fix an issue and don't want to hear about a way all the rest of the world could logically deduce without being in their brains. Then they look at you funny when you pick up all the spaghetti code and throw it against the wall. What else can you do with it? I don't even want to touch it anymore. How do you deal with this kind of code? How do you finally come to understand this stuff, which was made by other brains with crazy schemes and non-object oriented ways of thinking about web applications? Well put.

I find legacy code hardest to understand/fix/improve on when there are no comments, when the naming schemes are easily misunderstood, and when the “genius” programmers who wrote it first think about backdoor ways to fix an issue and don’t want to hear about a way all the rest of the world could logically deduce without being in their brains. Then they look at you funny when you pick up all the spaghetti code and throw it against the wall. What else can you do with it? I don’t even want to touch it anymore.

How do you deal with this kind of code? How do you finally come to understand this stuff, which was made by other brains with crazy schemes and non-object oriented ways of thinking about web applications?

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