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Working Effectively with Legacy Code • Michael Feathers & Christian Clausen

May 19, 2023

46:19

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Episode notes

Introduction

2min

How to Avoid Legacy Code

2min

The Future of Code Generation

2min

Co-Pilot: A New Type of REPL

2min

How to Characterize a Legacy Codebase

2min

The Importance of Confidence in a System

2min

The Importance of Leaning on the Compiler

2min

Building Discipline in Dynamic Languages

2min

The Importance of Discipline in Coding

2min

10.

The Importance of Domain Modeling in Software Development

2min

11.

The Deep Synergy of Testability and Good Design

2min

12.

How to Get Better at Testing

3min

13.

The Importance of Architecture in Agile Development

3min

14.

The Importance of TDD in Testing

2min

15.

The Struggle to Ship Test Code

2min

16.

Encapsulation: How to Make Testing Easier

2min

17.

How to Limit the Tendency of Local Changes to Have Global Effects

3min

18.

How Much Time Should You Invest in Fixing Legacy Code?

3min

19.

The Value of Hotspot Detection in Code Quality

5min

20.

How to Break Up Methods Without Your Brain

2min

21.

The Future of Development

2min

This interview was recorded for the GOTO Book Club.
gotopia.tech/bookclub

Read the full transcription of the interview here

Michael Feathers - Author of “Working Effectively with Legacy Code” & Chief Architect at Globant
Christian Clausen - Author of "Five Lines of Code" & Founder of mist-cloud & Technical Agile Coach

RESOURCES
github.com/features/copilot
xp123.com/articles/procedural-and-declarative-tests
owasp.org/www-community/Fuzzing
youtu.be/4cVZvoFGJTU
investopedia.com/terms/p/paretoprinciple.asp
codescene.com
sonarsource.com/products/sonarqube

DESCRIPTION
Legacy code has been one of the problems that developers worldwide have been trying to tackle for a long time. But what is legacy code and how can you learn from writing tests that give you more insights into the system and the code?
Christian Clausen, author of “Five Lines of Code”, talks to Michael Feathers, author of “Working Effectively With Legacy Code”, about their shared passion for testing, refactoring, and solving real-life problems with the help of clean code.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Michael Feathers • Working Effectively with Legacy Code
Christian Clausen • Five Lines of Code
Kent Beck • Test Driven Development
Martin Fowler • Refactoring
Adam Tornhill • Your Code as a Crime Scene
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais • Team Topologies
Eric Evans • Domain-Driven Design

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