Do you enjoy maintenance projects?
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I am not enjoying our current C# project which contains 60 projects and not even a single documentation! Do you guys enjoy maintenance projects?
Maintenance projects are usually harder and unrewarding to work on because most programmers don't write maintainable code. The majority of programmers don't comment adequately (in my opinion), and their code often has unnecessary complexity. Good code is simple and clear.
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I am not enjoying our current C# project which contains 60 projects and not even a single documentation! Do you guys enjoy maintenance projects?
Christian Flutcher wrote:
I am not enjoying our current C# project which contains 60 projects and not even a single documentation! Do you guys enjoy maintenance projects?
Sometimes. Rapid mass refactoring without a visible safety net is a bit of a speciality of mine. :-\
Anna :rose: Having a bad bug day? Tech Blog | Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "If mushy peas are the food of the devil, the stotty cake is the frisbee of God"
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Probably most of us don't. But it is a fact of life. Code has to be maintained so we must be prepared to perform these tasks. Occasionally it can be quite enjoyable and we can learn something from it - both when the code is bad and when the code is good. I didn't have to do much maintenance in my last contract. But just before the contract started I bought Working Effectively with Legacy Code[^]. I've read a fair bit of it and it's something I intend to make use of going forward. At least it's a way of adding some interest when faced with a horrendous maintenance project. Don't be fooled by the book's title though. "Legacy" means virtually all code that has to be maintained - even if it's spanking new .NET 3.5.
Kevin
Fowler's book is excellent. That and a chance conversation with Bob Walsh[^] were what got me into TDD, and now I'll happily mock anything... :-\
Anna :rose: Having a bad bug day? Tech Blog | Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "If mushy peas are the food of the devil, the stotty cake is the frisbee of God"
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Christian Flutcher wrote:
I am not enjoying our current C# project which contains 60 projects and not even a single documentation! Do you guys enjoy maintenance projects?
Sometimes. Rapid mass refactoring without a visible safety net is a bit of a speciality of mine. :-\
Anna :rose: Having a bad bug day? Tech Blog | Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "If mushy peas are the food of the devil, the stotty cake is the frisbee of God"
Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote:
Rapid mass refactoring without a visible safety net is a bit of a speciality of mine
Yeah, that works well. But I am afraid to do it as no one knows my refactoring breaks somewhere else.
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Fowler's book is excellent. That and a chance conversation with Bob Walsh[^] were what got me into TDD, and now I'll happily mock anything... :-\
Anna :rose: Having a bad bug day? Tech Blog | Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "If mushy peas are the food of the devil, the stotty cake is the frisbee of God"
Did you mean to say Feathers' book?
Kevin
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Did you mean to say Feathers' book?
Kevin
I did. :doh: Everything here is happening at 3 times normal speed this week - we have a major update to Visual Lint happening at the end of the week (v2.0, and a new product edition) and I'm juggling last minute testing, press releases and all the other stuff that goes with a major version update. With all of that going most of my brain cells have well and truly run for cover. When it's over there is some serious Belgian beer and (home grown!) chilli on the horizon. Anyone in the Bournemouth area is welcome to join the party, of course! :-D
Anna :rose: Having a bad bug day? Tech Blog | Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "If mushy peas are the food of the devil, the stotty cake is the frisbee of God"
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Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote:
Rapid mass refactoring without a visible safety net is a bit of a speciality of mine
Yeah, that works well. But I am afraid to do it as no one knows my refactoring breaks somewhere else.
It's always a bit of a juggling act. Fortunately, I've had enough practice over the years to know exactly where to draw the line, and where to back out changes before committing them. :)
Anna :rose: Having a bad bug day? Tech Blog | Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "If mushy peas are the food of the devil, the stotty cake is the frisbee of God"
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I am not enjoying our current C# project which contains 60 projects and not even a single documentation! Do you guys enjoy maintenance projects?
I don't mind them, since I got my programming start doing them. One of my first jobs was to update and rehost a bunch of test programs (ATE for Standard Missile factory test) on a new OS and hardware platform. I committed my first major faux pas when I marched into the boss' office with a completely botched piece of crap, shoved the source listing in front of him, and complained about the moronic simpleton who wrote the garbage. He hung his head and said, "I wrote that one." Oops. :-O
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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I am not enjoying our current C# project which contains 60 projects and not even a single documentation! Do you guys enjoy maintenance projects?
I would have a lot less work if it wasn't for incompetent programmers who write code with no comments. Thanks to them, when something needs to be changed or fixed quickly, I get calls that the client has a "critical situation" and will pay top dollar for a fast fix. I have a toolkit I use (some bought, most I developed) that helps me navigate in strange code, and within minutes of sitting down with it I can see what the hierarchy is, and within an hour I usually know what needs to be changed and what it will impact. So, no, I don't mind maintenance one bit. :)
Best wishes, Hans
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Christian Flutcher wrote:
Do you guys enjoy maintenance projects?
I resigned last time I had to do that. 'nuff said.