News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Cars took over because the legal system helped squeezed out alternatives. Parent comment

Re:Cars took over because the legal system helped squeezed o... by candu on Wednesday July 10, 2019 @11:59AM (#20403208)
...no, but it bears remembering that many cities in Europe were effectively bulldozed by two world wars, not to mention centuries of smaller wars.

Just because you can raze entire cities, displace their populations, and embark on "clean slate" urban planning projects doesn't mean you should. That's the civil engineering equivalent of rewriting the entire codebase from scratch.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Cars took over because the legal system helped squeezed o... by magduf on Wednesday July 10, 2019 @12:56PM (#20403827)
>That's the civil engineering equivalent of rewriting the entire codebase from scratch.

And yet, "refactoring" is definitely a real thing in software engineering and is not uncommon, for good reason: many times you really do need to throw everything out and start from scratch.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Cars took over because the legal system helped squeezed o... by SketchySeaBeast on Wednesday July 10, 2019 @01:42PM (#20404359)
Is there a version control for reality so you can rollback if things go horribly wrong? How many lives are ruined if the refactoring fails. That's an incredibly poor metaphor for actual, physical, events.
[ Parent | on HN ]