Re:Nobody's just reading your code
by nevir on Tuesday February 27, 2018 @11:09AM
(#16474717)
The inherent danger in rewriting dependencies always seems to be greatly underestimated, though. Especially when this is your first time tackling the problem space in earnest.
* Getting the solution 80% of the way there is often pretty fast (which ends up deceiving everyone depending on it "it's almost done!")
* You are nearly guaranteed to encounter a bunch of bugs that were already solved in the original dependency.
* Due to the previous points, there's a big chance that your initial design had a few fatal flaws, and requires significant refactoring to address (making the project take longer, and if not careful making it much harder to understand & maintain)
Rewriting dependencies can definitely be worth it from a code ownership/maintenance point of view; but more often than not, you'll end up creating a cycle where the new version of the dependency is just as obtuse as the previous—and once you leave, the same problem all over again.
If a dependency is well documented, has a clear architecture, and follows consistent coding practices, it will stand the test of time (including loss of authors/maintainers). Most people/companies aren't willing to put the time/effort into that level of polish.
* Getting the solution 80% of the way there is often pretty fast (which ends up deceiving everyone depending on it "it's almost done!")
* You are nearly guaranteed to encounter a bunch of bugs that were already solved in the original dependency.
* Due to the previous points, there's a big chance that your initial design had a few fatal flaws, and requires significant refactoring to address (making the project take longer, and if not careful making it much harder to understand & maintain)
Rewriting dependencies can definitely be worth it from a code ownership/maintenance point of view; but more often than not, you'll end up creating a cycle where the new version of the dependency is just as obtuse as the previous—and once you leave, the same problem all over again.
If a dependency is well documented, has a clear architecture, and follows consistent coding practices, it will stand the test of time (including loss of authors/maintainers). Most people/companies aren't willing to put the time/effort into that level of polish.