Re:Ask HN: Given two repos of code, what criteria would you ...
by eternityforest on Wednesday November 16, 2022 @05:40AM
(#33621131)
Time from zero to being able to make a change and compile it would probably be the most objective metric I'd be looking at.
I'd also be looking at density of interesting ideas(As per the "An engineer's job is to solve a problem with a minimum of new ideas" metric). If I see a lot of novelty then I would start questions whether the codebase was being treated like a sandbox to try out random stuff.
Number of obsolete technologies used would be a big one. If there's 50 things about to be no longer supported, there's a maintenance nightmare waiting to happen.
I'd also be looking at density of interesting ideas(As per the "An engineer's job is to solve a problem with a minimum of new ideas" metric). If I see a lot of novelty then I would start questions whether the codebase was being treated like a sandbox to try out random stuff.
Number of obsolete technologies used would be a big one. If there's 50 things about to be no longer supported, there's a maintenance nightmare waiting to happen.