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Never delete code. This is why you have git or svn, or whatever your tool of choice is. Never, ever delete code. You may think it's dumb, you may think it's

Never delete code. This is why you have git or svn, or whatever your tool of choice is. Never, ever delete code. You may think it's dumb, you may think it's crap, or useless or whatever, but in 2 years, you'll think. "Damn, I remember doing this already, don't I have some code in somewhere?" And you will. You may look at it and rewrite huge chunks because you're a far better programmer now, but trust me, re-writing code is way easier than writing it from scratch

daemonl 12y ago
Yep. I know. I even deleted the github repo. I'm seriously not sure what I was doing. Remove all traces of a bad idea?
- mattdeboard 12y ago
  Ouch, why on earth... Anyway, good blog post.
seanmcdirmid 12y ago
Sometimes you just need to burn the pictures of you with your ex and move on. In some way, you should "KEEP" everything, after all digital space is cheap right? But you can keep a lot of code around that you will never revisit in the future. > but trust me, re-writing code is way easier than writing it from scratch Not always true, and not even often true.
- randallsquared 12y ago
  > > but trust me, re-writing code is way easier than writing it from scratch > Not always true, and not even often true. In my experience, virtually always true. Just rereading the code you wrote before will bring back the understanding you had when you wrote it (unless you intentionally wrote obfuscated code, I suppose?), and it'll be immediately obvious to several-years-on you what the shortcomings were of that idea. If you have the time, a full rewrite almost always turns out to be better code than the old version, as long as you can hold off on trying new experiments in the process.
  - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
    You can always take the experience, but often the old code exists in such a misguided architecture that it is better to scrap it vs. unwind multitudes of bad uninformed decisions (b.c. you know better now!). Re-writing code is actually almost always harder than writing it from scratch, but we do it for other benefits: interoperability with legacy components, legacy of expected behavior (warts and all), risk (the old code is debugged), and culture (programs in the team know that code). But if you don't have those requirements, you will often come out behind in rewriting all code rather than going with a green field. It also depends on whether the work one is doing is cutting edge (lots of experimentation and learning required) or basic dev work over relatively well known concepts.
    - pdkl95 12y ago
      As Brooks said, "Plan to throw one away; you will, anyhow." There is value in a prototype - even if you don't actually use any piece of the prototype in the final product.
      - dagw 12y ago
        If you're going to quote Brooks, it might be worth noting that he's had a slight change of heart on that point: http://www.wired.com/2010/07/ff_fred_brooks/ http://www.wired.com/2010/07/ff_fred_brooks/
ascotan 12y ago
grep -a 50 -b 50 string /dev/disk0 ftw
- Dylan16807 12y ago
  I assume you mean grep -C 50. Lowercase a and b are ascii and byte offset rather than lines after and before.
ulisesrmzroche 12y ago
Nah, SCM tools were not made to be your personal snippet collector, you're better off just getting a real one if you're the hoarder kind of programmer.

daemonl 12y ago

Yep. I know. I even deleted the github repo. I'm seriously not sure what I was doing. Remove all traces of a bad idea?

mattdeboard 12y ago
Ouch, why on earth... Anyway, good blog post.

seanmcdirmid 12y ago

Sometimes you just need to burn the pictures of you with your ex and move on. In some way, you should "KEEP" everything, after all digital space is cheap right? But you can keep a lot of code around that you will never revisit in the future. > but trust me, re-writing code is way easier than writing it from scratch Not always true, and not even often true.

randallsquared 12y ago
> > but trust me, re-writing code is way easier than writing it from scratch > Not always true, and not even often true. In my experience, virtually always true. Just rereading the code you wrote before will bring back the understanding you had when you wrote it (unless you intentionally wrote obfuscated code, I suppose?), and it'll be immediately obvious to several-years-on you what the shortcomings were of that idea. If you have the time, a full rewrite almost always turns out to be better code than the old version, as long as you can hold off on trying new experiments in the process.
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago
  You can always take the experience, but often the old code exists in such a misguided architecture that it is better to scrap it vs. unwind multitudes of bad uninformed decisions (b.c. you know better now!). Re-writing code is actually almost always harder than writing it from scratch, but we do it for other benefits: interoperability with legacy components, legacy of expected behavior (warts and all), risk (the old code is debugged), and culture (programs in the team know that code). But if you don't have those requirements, you will often come out behind in rewriting all code rather than going with a green field. It also depends on whether the work one is doing is cutting edge (lots of experimentation and learning required) or basic dev work over relatively well known concepts.
  - pdkl95 12y ago
    As Brooks said, "Plan to throw one away; you will, anyhow." There is value in a prototype - even if you don't actually use any piece of the prototype in the final product.
    - dagw 12y ago
      If you're going to quote Brooks, it might be worth noting that he's had a slight change of heart on that point: http://www.wired.com/2010/07/ff_fred_brooks/ http://www.wired.com/2010/07/ff_fred_brooks/

ascotan 12y ago

grep -a 50 -b 50 string /dev/disk0 ftw

Dylan16807 12y ago
I assume you mean grep -C 50. Lowercase a and b are ascii and byte offset rather than lines after and before.

ulisesrmzroche 12y ago

Nah, SCM tools were not made to be your personal snippet collector, you're better off just getting a real one if you're the hoarder kind of programmer.