It sounds so good in theory, but in practice:
1. Frequently old code needs to be touched or refactored. Feature flag would not be enough.
2. Even feature flag itself can be a risky addition, and might affect existing customer usage.
Most of the time old code does need to be touched, there really aren't those perfect new isolated features, at least in my experience.
Re:Code Reviews Do Find Bugs
by bobthepanda on Tuesday July 02, 2024 @11:08AM
(#40857406)
If anything refactors should be behind feature flags *because* they are so disruptive.
IMO this is a terrible approach, and why I hate the way feature-flags are used nowadays.
For example, I'm not approving anything without input validation (frontend or backend). I have no idea if you're actually going to add validation later before the fflag is removed. "Trust me bro" doesn't work for me.
Re:Code Reviews Do Find Bugs
by bobthepanda on Tuesday July 02, 2024 @12:19PM
(#40858099)
I mean you can have validation for the features you’ve written already behind the feature flag, while holding off on the stuff that doesn’t exist yet.
Feature flags don’t mean throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
e.g. first pass adds a new screen and just dumps the output
second pass adds input fields and controls
next pass adds validation
then add animations
etc