I've been a professional C, Perl, PHP and Python developer.
I'm an ex-sysadmin from the late 20th century.
These days I do more Javascript and CSS and whatnot, and promote UX and accessibility.
But I'll point out that there are a lot of us who work on quirky foreign systems and codebases without much if anything in the way of testing. It's very easy to slip in a new bug when refactoring, and unless you have good tests for before/after, you might end up doing more harm than good.
I know, I know, that's a terrible point of view. But it's the practical one sometimes.
I agree, because although there are some ways of refactoring that reduce the possibilities of harmig the system, it will never be totally safe. I would say that having tests gives you a lot more freedom and safety to refactor (but tests must be done correclty)
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I generally agree.
But I'll point out that there are a lot of us who work on quirky foreign systems and codebases without much if anything in the way of testing. It's very easy to slip in a new bug when refactoring, and unless you have good tests for before/after, you might end up doing more harm than good.
I know, I know, that's a terrible point of view. But it's the practical one sometimes.
Yeah, good point. I've had a couple of those 😅
I agree, because although there are some ways of refactoring that reduce the possibilities of harmig the system, it will never be totally safe. I would say that having tests gives you a lot more freedom and safety to refactor (but tests must be done correclty)