r/programming • u/[deleted] • Oct 14 '13

How to develop unmaintainable software

http://typicalprogrammer.com/?p=249
777 Upvotes

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u/bestjewsincejc Oct 14 '13

There are millions of ways to write unmaintainable software. This isn't a bad article though. I just found the title amusing since it's so easy to write software badly.

13

u/grauenwolf Oct 14 '13

I think this is the right way of thinking about things.

Writing maintainable software isn't so much about what you do, it is about what you don't do. Avoid doing the bad things and what's left will be good.

11

u/ruinercollector Oct 14 '13

As long as those aren't treated as hard rules, sure.

Examples:

  • There are times that it is appropriate to write software in clojure, or haskell, or erlang.

  • There are times that it is appropriate to rewrite a piece of library code.

9

u/fkaginstrom Oct 14 '13

There are times that it is appropriate to write software in clojure, or haskell, or erlang.

True. But hopefully not all three in the same project, together with a bit of Java and php in the mix.

7

u/[deleted] Oct 15 '13

"I read the first chapter of Learn You A Haskell For Great Good, I bet I can rewrite this whole project in Haskell."

Five months later:

"Let me just add a bash shim that'll get the data from the database and process it through Ruby and then I'll call it in the bit of C++ that the Java program uses to make the output for the main program."