[KaiserPro]

Spoken like a true Programmer.

remember to refactor costs man hours, which costs real cash. If it works there is no point changing it. especially if the benefit is some so nebulous as "sub optimal VM" if you were worried about speed in the first place it wouldn't have been written in python.

also you wouldn't port your script to new hardware, you'd port Python (well wait for someone else to....)

[Suro]

And that why so many businesses are outperform by new ones...

Because they couldn't delivers a newer product and features fast enough...

Because, to support the new "object" that drive money now they had to refactor an old library, created by a dev 5 years ago, and left untouched since.

[darkarmani]

> And that why so many businesses are outperform by new ones...

So many? Is this including the massive number of new businesses that fail in the first few years? I think that is a very hard assertion to make without seeing the actual numbers of these "new businesses." Most are private and don't report their profits, so you have no idea if they are burning through cash or actually making money -- you just see the hype.

[pnathan]

Calling out this comment. This is true.

Inertia is a total killer. Your extant codebase is both leverage and inertia. If The New Thing requires changing course and isn't amenable to your extant leverage, most (all?) companies can not maneuver to deal with The New Thing. It simply costs a great deal for very small benefit.

[KaiserPro]

I would suggest that is a fault of process not programming.

If there is a need to upgrade then obviously you need to do it. However if your pipeline doesn't touch unicode, and your upgrading to python 3.3 purely for unicode, then its a massive waist of man power.

programs are a tool, nothing more. If the tool works there is no need to change it. infact its can be very expensive, especially if noone knows how to use it.

For example, most people don't need a pneumatic drill for their DIY. Yes it might be much more flexible, and really really fast. But the cost of maintaining it, and training to get the best use out of it is prohibitive.

However if you own a garage, hand tools are far too slow, and there are is a rich pool of talent to use you fast powerful tools.

[jl6]

Servicing technical debt sometimes costs more than refactoring. Sometimes not. A good manager/programmer can decide which situation they are in and act accordingly.