Good code is like a love letter to the next developer who will maintain it

#1

Post by feross » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 9:32 PM UTC

Good code is like a love letter to the next developer who will maintain it
addyosmani.com

Re: Good code is like a love letter to the next developer who will maintain it

#2

Post by NetOpWibby » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 9:54 PM UTC

Precisely why I also create READMEs in top-level directories. I'm not going to remember how to structure queries for my API a year from now.

Future me will always appreciate how considerate present me was.

Re: Good code is like a love letter to the next developer who will maintain it

#3

Post by Attummm » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 9:56 PM UTC

And remember, the next maintainer could very well be you.

Re: Good code is like a love letter to the next developer who will maintain it

#4

Post by UnixSchizoid » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 9:57 PM UTC

I write shitty code only I understand for job security. This is probably why I’m a sysadmin lol.

Re: Good code is like a love letter to the next developer who will maintain it

#5

Post by SaintGhurka » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 9:58 PM UTC

Attummm wrote: post #3

And remember, the next maintainer could very well be you.

Or it could be a homicidal maniac.

Re: Good code is like a love letter to the next developer who will maintain it

#6

Post by commandlinefan » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 9:59 PM UTC

As much as bad code irritates me, I'm not quite so quick to blame the original maintainer - they may well have wanted, badly, to write something better, but been put under artificial (and usually meaningless) time pressure that didn't allow it.

Re: Good code is like a love letter to the next developer who will maintain it

#7

Post by Gabriel_Martin » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 10:01 PM UTC

SaintGhurka wrote: post #5

Attummm wrote: post #3

And remember, the next maintainer could very well be you.

Or it could be a homicidal maniac.

Or both, depending on how readable it is

Re: Good code is like a love letter to the next developer who will maintain it

#8

Post by hirundo » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 10:02 PM UTC

So a love letter to myself?

  Who wrote this crap?!
  `git blame` 
  D'oh!

Just today I found an old spec I wrote that was so completely mocked that the code it specified made no difference. I wasn't feeling the love.

Re: Good code is like a love letter to the next developer who will maintain it

#9

Post by manderson89 » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 10:03 PM UTC

Reminds me of the Damian Conway quote "Documentation is a love letter that you write to your future self"

Re: Good code is like a love letter to the next developer who will maintain it

#10

Post by dasil003 » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 10:03 PM UTC

Attummm wrote: post #3

And remember, the next maintainer could very well be you.

Yeah, it's humbling enough when you are reviewing some old code and thinking "what idiot wrote this" only to git blame and realize it was you. What's even more jarring when you find some code, surprised the capability/feature even exists, then git blame and realize again it was you (this time hopefully with a pat on your own back because of how well it's written). Yes this has happened to me.