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Ask HN: How to be productive with big existing code base

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Re: Ask HN: How to be productive with big existing code base

#181

Post by scarface74 »

Jach wrote: post #157
scarface74 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With statically typed languages, you can do guaranteed safe, automated refactors. I’ll do those mercilessly without tests. I would be very wary of refactoring dynamically typed language.

I've broken code in Java because I inlined a private method as part of a refactor. I found out later that some other code was accessing it through reflection. Fortunately that other code was an old test, instead of production code, so when it started failing on the test automation servers I found out about it and could update the test to not do that. Then I did what I do frequently anyway, regardless of dynamic or st…

Even if someone were crazy enough to use reflection to get around accessibility for testing (which you should never do), once I saw that once, I would be judicious about using “Find all references for a class” - something else you can’t do reliably with dynamic languages.

As far as partial build systems, with at least C# that would still be caught when you do an integration build. But that still begs the question, why wouldn’t you use a proper internal package repo and proper versioning?

Re: Ask HN: How to be productive with big existing code base

#182

Post by darepublic »

IshKebab wrote: post #109
Jtsummers wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how that's a counterpoint. Chesterton doesn't say "don't change it, that's how it is and shall be." He's saying, "Question why it's present before you attempt to change it." Looking around, there were no obvious livestock or other reasons for the fence. But perhaps they're only there six months out of the year. Ok, make the fence a gate, and not a fence, so it can be opened more easily. Maybe it's no long…

Usually there is nobody to ask though, and if you're refactoring a mess then the code won't give you a clear answer. The only way to find out if the was a reason the fence is there is to remove it and see what goes wrong which is what you were going to do anyway.

Short of doing that, talking to the stakeholders could help? I feel like if you understand the actual requirements you can safely make those refactoring decisions

Re: Ask HN: How to be productive with big existing code base

#183

Post by tcgv »

teddyh wrote: post #91
vonseel wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well definitely don’t write bad code intentionally!

Certainly, but the definition of “good” changes over time. At one point, callbacks were good, and now they’re not. What happens when the definition of “good” changes a second time before the code base has been fully converted from callbacks? Well, you shouldn’t write bad code, so now the code has three code styles in it, and, more importantly, two styles of conversions: From callbacks to current-good style and from p…

I share the same perspective. The value of a code base following one single coding style/convention/architecture is huge, even if there's a better coding approach right around the corner.

Re: Ask HN: How to be productive with big existing code base

#184

Post by AnimalMuppet »

It's a three-year-old code base? That's good. It means that you can probably talk to some of the authors, to figure out what they were trying to do. A big 20-year-old code base is worse, because many of the original authors are gone, and there's been a lot more time for it to be patched by people who didn't understand what the original author was up to.

Re: Ask HN: How to be productive with big existing code base

#187

Post by villeez »

Run the code through in Softagram analyzer and start digging into the structures using the visual browsing capabilities in Softagram Desktop app. There is free trial at softagram.com where you can do it easily if you happen to have your codes in some Git repo in cloud services such as Bitbucket or GitHub... Shameless self promotion this is however, as I work for the company. But that approach I have also been personally using more than 10 years: static dependency analysis coupled with excellent visual dependency browsing. I think some expensive version of Visual Studio has also similar stuff available.
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