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Software Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [rewrite]

56 questions
323
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25 answers

When is a BIG Rewrite the answer?

Just read the question about the Big Rewrites and I remembered a question that I've been wanting answered myself. I have a horrible project passed down to me, written in old Java, using Struts 1.0, tables with inconsistent relationships, or no…
Jonn
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21 answers

A large part of my code has a major design flaw. Finish it off or fix it now?

I am a high school student working on a C# project with a friend of mine with about the same skill level as me. So far, we have written roughly 3,000 lines of code and 250 lines of test code in a span of 100 commits. Due to school, I put off the…
oldmud0
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Have you ever been involved in a BIG Rewrite?

Joel Spolsky said in one of his famous posts: The single worst strategic mistake that any software company can make: rewrite the code from scratch. Chad Fowler wrote: You’ve seen the videos, the weblog posts and the hype, and you’ve…
systempuntoout
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Are there any actual case studies on rewrites of software success/failure rates?

I've seen multiple posts about rewrites of applications being bad, people's experiences about it here on Programmers, and an article I've ready by Joel Spolsky on the subject, but no hard evidence or case studies. Other than the two examples Joel…
user39741
30
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3 answers

Version control practice for Rewrites

We developed a product (prototype) P_OLD in language X and we are now rewriting it from scratch as P_NEW in language Y. Since P_NEW and P_OLD are the same product: Should P_NEW just be a brach of P_OLD old or should it be its own repository? What…
1v0
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We have a large Ruby on Rails application (25 million monthly users), our management decided to rewrite in Node.js, am I crazy?

Please tell me if: Node.js will make our site faster! Node.js will consume fewer server resources, we can save money! Node.js will make us more productive! Node.js means we can share client and server side JavaScript code. To clarify, we're…
user88487
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5 answers

When should you rewrite?

Possible Duplicate: When is a BIG Rewrite the answer? In Joel Spolsky's famous (or infamous) article Thins You Should Never Do, Part I, he makes the case that doing a rewrite is always a wrong move because: It automatically puts you behind (your…
BIBD
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15
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10 answers

suggesting large changes/a rewrite as an intern

The context: it's an internal project (that I don't think a lot of people use) it's old we're updating it The issues: it abuses the mvc framework (no use of models, business logic in views, etc) what we're being asked to do is small, but because…
7983879342
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14
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9 answers

We're not a software company. Is a complete re-write still a bad idea?

I understand the reasoning behind Joel Spolsky's article "Things You Should Never Do, Part I", but I always see it referenced in regards in situations where the end goal is the production of software. What if I'm a developer who maintains an…
Nicholas Sideras
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14
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7 answers

How to avoid rewriting parts of an application

I'm working at a company on a project for their Sales department. It's my first professional programming job, but I've been coding by myself and learning for years. Part of the project involves taking some data and combining it with input to produce…
SH7890
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14
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5 answers

Software rewriting alternatives

We have a legacy system to bring up-to-date because: It uses an unpopular (amoung our users) non-sql database (Btrieve) Provides only a text interface Is written in Turbo Pascal (but compiled in free pascal) which is hard to recruit/retain…
weston
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13
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6 answers

Rewriting software using Agile methodologies

Suppose you have to rewrite an entire application using Agile methodologies, how would you do it? I guess you could write a big bunch of user stories based in the behavior of your current system. And then implement them in small iterations. But…
Asier Barrenetxea
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Is lack of functional requirements agile?

Nowadays everybody wants to be agile. In every team I worked with, the shape of agile was different. Some things are common - like daily stand-ups or planning, but other parts vary significantly. In my current team there's one detail which I find…
Arkadiusz Kałkus
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11
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7 answers

How to deal with a large codebase with no requirements and the responsible person leaving the company soon

i am faced with the following scenario and i wonder if you guys have some tips for me on how to approach this. One of my colleagues is going to leave the company in a few month and i am ordered to do a rewrite of his application, since the…
Peter
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Refactoring - is it appropriate to simply rewrite code, as long as all tests pass?

I recently watched "All the Little Things" from RailsConf 2014. During this talk, Sandi Metz refactors a function that includes a large nested if-statement: def tick if @name != 'Aged Brie' && @name != 'Backstage passes to a TAFKAL80ETC…
user200783
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