Re:Is it a Good Idea to Write Tests for Legacy Code?
by davidgerard on Wednesday November 20, 2013 @08:50AM
(#6767910)
That feels like a misuse of the word "legacy", but I know what you mean - the sense of "legacy" as "an unknown quantity of technical debt just landed on my desk."
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Re:Is it a Good Idea to Write Tests for Legacy Code?
by moomin on Thursday November 21, 2013 @01:00PM
(#6776210)
Michael Feathers defines "legacy" as "something that doesn't have satisfactory tests". Dan North adds "does something useful".
Without the tests, refactoring is dangerous. This means that the systems are encouraged to remain static while the world around them changes. Systems that do the job, but for the wrong reasons, are legacy.
That last one was me. :)