I have to fix a bug and finally find the code where everything goes south. And immediately I ask myself: “Why is that written in this way? I mean: It *has* to break!”
Sounds familiar?
Luckily I am not editing files via FTP directly on a server but am in a project that uses version control. Which allows me to check who and when this line was last changed. Which will provide me with some information on whom to ask about why that line was written in that specific way.
And guess what? That line was last changed 5 years ago by a then-coworker that has since left.
But at least we have the commit-message that was left by that coworker.
And, yeah! You guessed it: It’s not helpful: “Fixed bug”…
If you are lucky, it contains a link to an issue. But: Yeah! 3 years ago the team changed their issue-tracker and they didn’t bother to move over closed tickets…
So let me talk a bit about what It takes to