Software Rewrite Debate
This cluster revolves around debates on the wisdom of rewriting software applications from scratch, frequently referencing Joel Spolsky's article arguing against it, and weighing risks like lost knowledge and delays against potential benefits like better architecture.
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Aren't full rewrites pretty much universally considered harmful?
If you don't have manpower for a rewrite... then why rewrite?
"We acknowledge that nobody should ever rewrite from scratch... but after five years we're rewriting from scratch because we know better."
"easier to rewrite from scratch" is a fallacy. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-...
A complete rewrite is rarely a good idea. Joel Spolsky summed it up in on of his great blog posts: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-...
is there a business need to rewrite it? like, are there existing bugs or new features to be added? because if not, the rewrite doesnt make any sense.
You haven't yet seen many SWEs decide on whether to do a rewrite yet have you ?
Ahh yes the "we'll rewrite this code from scratch" argument; known well to work every time!
You should not rewrite something that works, only when you need to make larger changes, even if the guy who wrote the program is still there you might want to rewrite from scratch if the requirements change, like you now need to handle 100x more traffic and need to have something with better performance, or scaled out.
Are you one of the people who bring up https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-... ?The big re-write seems to be what you are proposing...