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Is it better to start from scratch rather than refactoring? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org to c/programming@beehaw.org

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Refactoring gets really bad reviews, but from where I'm sitting as a hobby programmer in relative ignorance it seems like it should be easier, because you could potentially reuse a lot of code. Can someone break it down for me?

I'm thinking of a situation where the code is ugly but still legible here. I completely understand that actual reverse engineering is harder than coding on a blank slate.

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[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Rereading this, I probably should have added a hedge - is it usually better to start from scratch. I do know that there's exceptions to most rules, and this isn't actually a practical problem I'm facing.

Thanks, this is kind of how I thought it should be. I just didn't know if I was missing something, because people on the humour communities trash talk refactoring a lot.

Edit: Wow, Netscape... Sorry to say it, but that post isn't much younger than me. I don't even know a most of these examples. That being said, it was still a great read.