> the original work had taken me maybe an hour. And the cost of keeping the data around was approximately zero. It seemed he didn’t consider that.
You're missing the time other developers will spend trying to figure out why that code is there. When investigating a bug, upgrading, or refactoring, people will encounter that code and need to spend time and mental energy figuring it out.
Recently, I've been modernizing a few projects to run in containers. This work involves reading a lot of code, refactoring, and fixing bugs. Dead code—either code that is no longer called or code that never was—is one of the things that most wastes my time and energy. Figuring out why it's there and wondering if changing or deleting it will affect anything is just tiresome.
Answering "Why" is usually the hardest question. It becomes especially challenging when the original developer is no longer with the team.
You're missing the time other developers will spend trying to figure out why that code is there. When investigating a bug, upgrading, or refactoring, people will encounter that code and need to spend time and mental energy figuring it out.
Recently, I've been modernizing a few projects to run in containers. This work involves reading a lot of code, refactoring, and fixing bugs. Dead code—either code that is no longer called or code that never was—is one of the things that most wastes my time and energy. Figuring out why it's there and wondering if changing or deleting it will affect anything is just tiresome.
Answering "Why" is usually the hardest question. It becomes especially challenging when the original developer is no longer with the team.