Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers

SE Radio 602: Nicolas Carlo on Improving Legacy Code

Feb 7, 2024

52:17

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Nicolas Carlo, author of Legacy Code First Aid Kit, talks about the challenges of dealing with legacy code and shares useful tools and techniques from his book. They discuss the importance of refactoring, naming, and behavioral analysis in improving legacy code. They also explore the Macado method for addressing large tasks and discuss the potential of AI in legacy code improvement.

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Quick takeaways

Legacy code is valuable code that developers are afraid to change and includes both untested and difficult-to-modify code.

When dealing with legacy code, it is generally more effective to make iterative improvements, introduce safety nets, and focus on smaller, manageable chunks rather than attempting a full rewrite.

Deep dives

Defining Legacy Code

According to Nicholas Carlow, author of "Legacy Code First Aid Kit," legacy code is not just old code, but valuable code that developers are afraid to change. It can include code that is not tested, but even tested code can be considered legacy if it is difficult to modify. Carlow emphasizes that legacy code is code that is actively being used in production and has an impact on users, making it valuable and in need of maintenance.

Build a Toolbox for Practical Application

01:27

SAS Software Code Scene Benefits for Legacy Projects

00:56

Quality of printer affects approval testing

01:21

Introduction

3min

Legacy Code: Reimagining instead of Rewriting

17min

Refactoring as a Tool for Improving Legacy Code

13min

Importance of Naming, Refactoring, and Behavioral Analysis Tools in Legacy Code

3min

The Macado Method and Benefits of Drawing Out Tasks

9min

Legacy Code Techniques and the Potential of AI

7min

Nicolas Carlo talks with host Sam Taggart about Nicolas’s recent book, Legacy Code First Aid Kit. They start by defining legacy code and the general issues that developers face when dealing with it. Nicolas describes some of the tools in his book and provides examples of where he has found them useful. The episode also touches briefly on the role of AI and some other tools Nicolas has discovered since writing the book. This episode sponsored by WorkOS.

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