02 February 2014

Same shit, different color

Same shit


Today I did a reflection after reading a blog post about howto deal with legacy code and the thing was, it didn't had any new information or insight. It was the same story:

First a introduction that try to visualize how bad it is:
...inherit someone else code....hard to understand.....no tests....outdated documentation....original coder has left the company....

Then come the solution...or should I said suggested practices:
...Pair programming.....TDD....Continuous Integration....refactoring.....loosely coupled code...customer value....

How many times have I read a book, blog post or watch a webcast with the same message? Thousands? I don't know... to many anyway.


Differences


So are they really the same? Isn't there anything that differentiate them? Yes it is. The writer!

The writer writes it with her own words and experiences. That's about it. The same list with the same practies. If your lucky you find some context specific that match your own enviroment. 

Isn't this said? You waste your time reading the same shit but with different color? I'm not better than you. I have done it. I have even written about it.

The question you should ask yourself is why is she writing about it?

She has made a journey from not knowing to knowing more (and knowing she knows more), and know she wan't to tell the world. Yes, because she has read somewhere (probably some Software Craftmanship writers blog or book), that to improve your skills further you should spread what you have learned, and one way is to write a blog.

There is nothing wrong with that.

But...what I find interesting is the journey itself, and that you rarely find written about. I would be more interested (it´s ok to not agree with me :-) ) in reading about:

  • What practies did you try?
  • What did you start with?
  • Which ones were difficault to adopt?
  • How did you deal with the difficulties?
  • Which ones were easy? Why?
  • How bumpy was your trip?
  • When do you fall back to old habits? (we all do that sometimes)
  • Whats your next step?
  • ... 
The list with practies is the same for everyone, it's the journey that is unique. It's about changing your behavior.

In the future I will only write a blog post when I have something to tell.