Legacy code - DevLog #004

I think,

everyone of us has this spot in his or her code, which he or she does not like. It's ugly, poorly written code back from the days, when we started our applications and learned programming. Code from these days is often single-function code, with many duplicates. However, it's working code, of course, and thoroughly tested--which is the reason, why this code is still there.

I have this spot in NumeRe's code, too. And, to be honest, there are more than one spots. They are working and not that central code sections. However, each time, when I have to change something in these sections, I have to fight against my own sickness and the strong feeling, to hit CTRL-A and DEL afterwards. I have reworked some of these sections already (those were mostly more crucial parts), but refactoring is not the top priority in my daily work. I want to focus on new features, which enhance the functionality of NumeRe. And I don't want to look back into bad written code, but rather into newer, elegant solutions.

Therefore, I have the refactoring tickets on my list. And the day will come, that I erase the poorly written code and replace it by a newer, more elegant solution. But this day is not today--and everybody knows: never touch a running system

TLDR: Everyone has bad written code, which he or she just doesn't refactor.