Re: Mother of a Refactor
AndrewMcDonagh wrote:
VisionSet wrote:
I/we have inherited a 'Java' web application that is written in a
style that has to be seen to believed. We need to refactor/rewrite
it!
The applicat....
snipped.
But does it work?
If it does, I wouldn't change it. If I need to extend it, I'd try to
isolate those changes from the old code as much as possible - even
so far as to duplicate state.
The OP did say "The product is on-line, making money but further
developement that is being demanded is obviously painfully slow and hack
upon hack."
That means freeze-and-forget is not an option.
Also, adding features as barnacles on the side, with duplicated state,
is a sure recipe for exponentially increasing maintenance problems.
Every piece of code that has its own copy of some state is another piece
of code that may need to be modified, and may get forgotten, when that
aspect of the state is involved in a change.
In particular, with scattered SQL construction, I would be worried about
SQL spoofing. It would be hard to be certain that all user data inserted
in SQL is being handled in spoof-proof ways.
Patricia