News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Code Archeology – Lines of code by age. Parent comment

Re:Code Archeology – Lines of code by age by samuirai on Friday September 26, 2014 @06:22PM (#8375213)
That it's so interesting. A lot of people said that to me. But to me it felt more natural to highlight old code. Probably because I had this bias in the back of my mind that old code could be bad code.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Code Archeology – Lines of code by age by pjmorris on Friday September 26, 2014 @06:49PM (#8375303)
In my experience, it's often the new/changed code that is the most interesting. It's often the code that is causing some unexpected bug. 'No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new patch pulls away from the old cloth, and a worse tear is made'
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Code Archeology – Lines of code by age by marcosdumay on Friday September 26, 2014 @10:13PM (#8375822)
You are ignoring survivor bias.

Old code is mostly good code. It's new code that has varying quality.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Code Archeology – Lines of code by age by hello_there on Friday September 26, 2014 @07:27PM (#8375421)
Physical things often become darker with age due to dirt or corrosion. Examples are wood and metal, or an old vs. a new wall painted in the same color. They all become darker over time. Therefore I think it't more intuitive to think of darker things as older.
[ Parent | on HN ]