Re:Burying your dead code
by cl0wnshoes on Thursday September 07, 2017 @03:14PM
(#15194861)
Neat idea, might look into this for .NET, the obsolete attribute doesn't really cut it currently. Some of the comments on here mention unit test, static analysis, and just a good all round IDE makes this a non issue, but those are the scenarios I find most dangerous.
A unit test does not prove without a doubt a class/method are not in use. Static analysis/good IDEs are bound to the immediate code base, they can't determine usage when your code is shared across multiple workspaces or when the class/method are only called externally.
Tombstoning isn't perfect, but its safer than what I typically do given a sufficient amount of time to collect logs along side a bit of analysis on a case by case basis (e.g. method AddTwoNumbers() not being called for 6 months maybe okay to remove, whereas EndOfYearReportGenerator() not being called for 6 months shouldn't blindly be removed.)
A unit test does not prove without a doubt a class/method are not in use. Static analysis/good IDEs are bound to the immediate code base, they can't determine usage when your code is shared across multiple workspaces or when the class/method are only called externally.
Tombstoning isn't perfect, but its safer than what I typically do given a sufficient amount of time to collect logs along side a bit of analysis on a case by case basis (e.g. method AddTwoNumbers() not being called for 6 months maybe okay to remove, whereas EndOfYearReportGenerator() not being called for 6 months shouldn't blindly be removed.)