Re: Mother of a Refactor
jmcgill wrote:
Patricia Shanahan wrote:
Martin Fowler, "Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code"
I suspect Martin himself would, at this point, rewrite the whole thing
in Rails, given the situation described and the kind of application it is.
Just because the project is online and is a revenue stream does *NOT*
mean it's good and is no guarantee that it will *continue* to be a
revenue stream.
Then again, there's not much information in the OP's original complaint.
Maybe it's really not as bad as described. Java does tend to make it
difficult to write *really* bad code.
It is possible that the program is messed up to the point where only a
rewrite can rescue it.
However, that approach has serious business risks. Either they go on
adding features to the old program without improving its design, or they
freeze the features until the new program is ready.
Adding features without improving its design may work out, or may be
catastrophic. At a minimum, a small team is going to have to divide its
efforts between upgrading the old program and writing the new one.
Freezing also has risks, depending both on the urgency of the new
features compared to the time it will take to get the rewrite up to the
current functionality.
If they choose a refactoring strategy, they can pick out aspects of the
old design that are getting in the way, or need to be changed to support
new features, and selectively refactor those areas.
It's impossible to say which is the better strategy without knowing much
more about both the program and the business situation.
Patricia