[dreamoffire]

Don’t rewrite it.

Every time I hear someone wanting to rewrite something without a VERY solid reason is a flag for me. It is hard improving a system that’s already there, but can be super rewarding if you change your mindset.

Everyone is eager to go with a blank canvas and greenfield a project but ultimately we’ll end up with the same shit situation in 5-6 years after the original authors have bounced and the newer devs are side-eyeing the code.

[inglor_cz]

During the last 15 years or so, I only rewrote large parts of the code from scratch three times, but it was absolutely worth it. Two of these refactorizations are now 12 and 7 years old, respectively, and they have proven themselves very well. They barely need any maintenance, on a level of "a one-liner change every two years or so".