Re:Did Thomas Kuhn Kill Truth? A review of Errol Morris's cr...
by westoncb on Monday September 24, 2018 @05:43PM
(#18061722)
The key word in my previous comment would be 'analogy'. In any analogy, some elements in the analogous domain have no mapping. I was highlighting the isomorphism between code undergoing refactors and theories undergoing paradigm shifts, in terms of linguistic structure; I was not commenting on the social components of either.
When there is a paradigm shift, there is typically an "old guard" that is not able to or willing to let go of the old way, and that gets left behind. This is why the saying goes: "Science advances one funeral at a time".
In most cases (at least in my experience), refactoring is done either by the same team of programmers creating the original version, or a new team with a similar outlook to the old team.
This means that there is not really an "old guard" to leave behind.
But maybe you meant some other type of refactoring?