A small API change had massive ramifications. The code stack is extremely brittle for no good reason.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 6, 2023
Will ultimately need a complete rewrite.
Complete rewrite in only Rust, right?
There’s a great book called “Kill it with fire“ which talks about legacy systems and the desire for rewrites. TL,DR: it is rarely the right choice, and the hoped-for benefits almost never materialize
Complete rewrite is the first impulse of all junior developers/interns
“The code is brittle for no reason” Translation: “I don’t have clue how this works, what parts are important, or how my changes will affect overall functionality”
Wtf does he mean by “code stack is extremely brittle”. And if they’re having trouble making minor changes without unintended consequences what makes him think they’re capable of a complete rewrite? I’ve done a few major rewrites in the past and the successful ones require a deep understanding of how the legacy system works. He’s fired almost everyone with that understanding. Additionally, it’s unlikely that the entire Twitter codebase could be rewritten in one go. Usually something of that size will be done incrementally and often leave some systems never being rewritten. The man has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about
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It's funny how all these twats say if you want to rewrite the system that means you're bad...while they themselves don't know the system
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