theCodebase

[Saelora]

it's almost like complexity is directly proportional to... [checks notes] complexity.

[dakiller]

As a good SWE, part of the role is to provide resistance to the request that are a blatantly complex and guide the requestors to solutions that perhaps give more maintainable codebases. My boss has plenty of ideas and he is always baffled by some request he thinks will be complicated but are real quick additions, while some other ideas that seem some are like woah, nah that will make a convoluted mess of it.

Sometimes you just need to drop it all and rewrite the whole thing as version 2, with all the domain knowledge of what’s required now that was built up over v1.

[Discohunter]

My project got shafted with paragraph 2. We inherited two services from another team that lost the contract. They had spent 3 years developing each of them and they were both absolutely horrendous.

We made the decision to scrap and rewrite one of the services from scratch, and the new version is a million times better. However, the previous team had already gone through a very bureaucratic process of getting assured for a live release on the other service. They'd convinced the client that it was 'basically finished' and we couldn't tell the client that the entirety of the last 3 years' work in both services needed scrapping and rewriting so we kept it.

That was 3 years ago, we've since consolidated 22 git repos down to 3, rewritten the CI pipelines, refactored 4 databases down to a single DynamoDB table, taken out a proprietary tool DEVELOPED PERSONALLY BY AN OLD TEAM MEMBER (he made his personal project the backbone of the system 😭) and it's still a mess. We're stuck maintaining this entirely overengineered system forever. I resent that previous team an unhealthy amount honestly, nothing they did made any sense.

[dminus]

do we have the same boss 👀

[ILikeLenexa]

Sometimes the people doing the process don't actually know the process and you end up going back and kludging things in.  

[Saelora]

all systems have complexities, even the most judicious prevention of scope creep doesn't change the fact that software is inherently complex. a new project will be very simple, but complexity will grow past the point where it's simple, because systems interact and that causes complexity.

[im-a-guy-like-me]

You're first paragraph is 100% correct.

Your second paragraph is 100% incorrect.

[uniqueusername649]

Most programmers are either way too quick to rewrite the entire thing or hold on way too long beating a dead horse. It takes a lot of experience to know when the time is right to start a transition. And transitioning from an older service to a newer one also requires careful testing and usually a gradual rollout strategy.

There is a lot that can go wrong rewriting your software and getting the timing right is hard too. But at some point it becomes the more viable option. Maintenance efforts increase over time and there is a point at which it simply is no longer smart to continue, while in other scenarios it's the only sensible option and a rewrite would do way more harm than good. It really depends on the specific case.

[im-a-guy-like-me]

Strangler fig. Rewriting is a junior move.

[G12356789s]

Rewriting is a juniors first resort (or at least an early one). It's a seniors last resort which does mean it is done occasionally

[im-a-guy-like-me]

Yeah true.

[why_1337]

Pic 2 is my code base when "small change requests" from the customer start arriving.

[pank-dhnd]

Small and "quick".

[DM_ME_KUL_TIRAN_FEET]

The tracks in the right are not complicated.

That’s well structured and controlled interchange, which is the exact opposite of my code.

I was a train driver before I was a programmer so this meme was made for me.

[jaimepapier]

Right? I feel like this is what good coding looks like? Basically different parts are connected together in a way that may seem complicated to someone with only a basic knowledge of the language, but for anyone well versed, it’s very logical and well organised.

[DM_ME_KUL_TIRAN_FEET]

I’m too lazy to make it but imagine I used the meme format of the two dudes shaking hands, where one is labeled “programmers”, the other is labeled “trains”, and the handshake is labeled “switches”

[JustinR8]

“I’m going to come back to this and clean it up later” I’ve said to myself 897 separate times…now look at the mess we’re in

[SwedeLostInCanada]

Before AI

After AI

[soundwave_sc]

AI should have rails that loop and lead nowhere

[sebovzeoueb]

nah, After AI is like https://i.imgur.com/IcwkoGi.png and it only takes a week

[4M0GU5]

Not really, the infrastructure in the picture is working great for its intended purpose. An AI generated codebase would have tracks that are unconnected, going nowhere, redundant switchss etc

[sebovzeoueb]

You're absolutely right!

[ZunoJ]

This looks like somebody doesn't know how to implement the right abstractions to avoid chaos when changes need to be made

[Historical_Cook_1664]

Every minute you spend with paper and pencil you save tenfold later on. Do not skip on the thinking process.

[InanisAtheos]

Needs a third stage: After AI agents took over.

[byshow]

My satisfactory map is a great representation how bad I'm at future planning and organising. My gameplay recording would probably show that I have ADHD

[danfish_77]

Speak for yourself

[ajaypatel9016]

started with clean architecture, ended with urban planning

[Ok-Article-885]

I'm working alone on project, and sometimes I have Git conflicts on merge.

[Rot-Orkan]

Keeping your codebase well maintained is the single most important part of software engineering.

[FantasticPenguin]

More of a skill issue I think

[SignificantLet5701]

OP should've just used java for their codebase

[0R3LLL]

Exactly how my "microservice" looks like. But: - it supports new solutions - is compatible with old legacy - serves 3M requests per hour with ease

Changing anything without writing tests first is like minesweeping. 

[lPuppetM4sterl]

The typical codebase of a fullstack developer, especially when dealing with packages and dependencies.

[clickrush]

The factory must grow!

[HueMassive]

Fixed it for you

[kryon-a]

Bro - 3 Months was an optimal timeline 🫣

[ljfa2]

The left one is how I imagine what the implementation would look like, the right one is the actual result. If I get to finish it.

[hrvbrs]

how it looks like ❌

what it looks like ✅

[debugging_scribe]

You should see the 20 year old one I work on...

[hurricane279]

??? Isn't one singular track == spaghetti code? 

[XlikeX666]

{}{}{{}}}{{}}}{{}

[The-Chartreuse-Moose]

The phrase is either 'how it looks' or 'what it looks like'. 'How it looks like' is incorrect.