Saturday, December 9th, 2006
Your “Legacy Code” - Quick HIDE!
Legacy Code. That which holds auto didactic developers and programmers in it’s paranoid grip (well those that care anyway). The fact that someone will look at your code and see all your failed experiments, spaghetti, odd, and non-standards compliant code is enough to make any of us blush and bury our heads into our nests as a threatened ostrich would.
I went to a small social convention with my former workmates and one of them specifically was left with dealing with the legacy code I left behind. It wasn’t broke at he time I left, but I guess the time came for some changes to be made to a specific application. I found out that I am no different to anyone else who has started their web development sojourn on their own.
I now have haters. :) Those who have seen my code and laughed or whined about he terrible ingrained HTML into PHP logic. My pitiful attempts at Object Oriented Programming and my crazy conventions. This same company probably handled my other legacy projects and hopefully saw that I was on the upward slope as I slowly but surely teched up to the developer that I am today.
It should not have come as a surprise :) As preparation for my departure, we had meetings with my replacement, I had to debrief my replacement (who was an inexperienced contractor) about what he’s getting himself into. I was the first to tell him. It’s crap. You should rewrite it. It’s got a lot of coupled objects and ingrained HTML. I was trying to get things together at the time and by the time I’ve finished, I was a better developer, the product worked. Just that the way it was written was not very maintainable.
My assumption is that this guy didn’t last as the division of the company which I had led was recently dismantled. They’ve lost yet another web designer and producer, now all they have left is a designer/producer. I heard through the grapevine that they are now outsourcing the maintenance of the remaining applications to another company. Who would in turn be looking at my code and no doubt cursing my name.
I’m issuing a public apology, to all the people who have had to work on projects which I had worked starting 2-3 years ago. If it’s of any consolation, you can find solace in the fact that I’m in the process of sifting through some someone elses Legacy Code right now at SiteCubed. A vicious cycle.
SO I guess to conclude, I’ll just say that it’s alright to have written sh*t quality code in your past, we’ve all done it, so stop lying to yourself, stop hiding, clear your conscience and be thankful that someone else is cleaning up the sh*t you’ve left behind (and that it’s not you (you crappy coder you) ;))
class ProductListDatabaseObject
{
//….. errrrrr well with a class name like this, I think you know what was inside it.
}
?>
on Friday, December 15th, 2006 at 11:34 pm:
I like what you are saying here, good to see the mighty and articulate rvdavid is human afterall!
I’ll stop hiding from my “legacy code” as you’ve dubbed it.
on Saturday, December 23rd, 2006 at 5:03 pm:
Thanks for freeing me from guilt :)
I’ve written heaps of buggy backends - before I knew what outsourcing meant. :P