We Must be Willing to Amputate Our Software

6 December 2021 by Phillip JohnstonSometimes our code just gets so complicated that it is a liability. It has been modified so often, and so thoughtlessly, that it is not worth saving. Or, even worse, it should not have been written in the first place! We must be willing to amputate such portions of our software and start over, especially to fight back against software aging. Unfortunately, we don’t do this: existing code exerts a powerful influence, primarily due to the Sunk Cost Fallacy, and the original authors are usually remiss to see their beloved code. But we also have …

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