Justifying Code Rewrites? · Slashdot Mirror

Posted by Cliff on Wednesday May 7, 2003 @06:30AM from the rebooting-the-codebase dept.

snow70 asks: "It seems that it is getting harder and harder to justify the decision to re-write rather than hack/patch away on a flawed code base, given the economic situation and the drive to squeeze every last drop out of an existing code base. Are the readers aware of any research articles or reports that extoll the benefits of re-writing in terms of the cost savings in maintenance and support ?" This topic was discussed two years ago, but I think many people who'll find themselves in this situation would also benefit from any research articles or publications as snow70 requests.

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It's good that rewrites are hard to justify! by JonRock · 2003-05-07 06:42 · Score: 5, Insightful

Point one: rewriting from scratch can be a strategic disaster.
Point two: rectifying a "flawed" code base can be done within the framework of good software engineering practice, and is a very marketable skill besides.