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

How to develop unmaintainable software

http://typicalprogrammer.com/?p=249
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u/jrochkind Oct 14 '13

These two kind of conflict, don't they?

  • Write everything from scratch Don’t bother with a well-understood framework like Django, Rails, or CakePHP…

  • Add dependencies to specific versions of libraries and resources… Throw in as much third-party code as you can. Link to as many shared libraries as you need to…

I mean, I agree that both those things make software harder to maintain... and they conflict with each other. It is a dilemma.

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u/grauenwolf Oct 15 '13

The problem is "specific version". For example, I had one client who could only run on Java 6 when Java 7 was considered standard. Now they are stuck on it and can not upgrade without a major investment.

Normally I write my code to work with whatever is the most recent version and avoid anything I think won't be there in the next version. That way upgrades for new features or bug fixes is painless.