jonnyjava

WORKING EFFECTIVELY WITH LEGACY CODE

To me, legacy code is simply code without tests. I’ve gotten some grief for this definition. What do tests have to do with whether code is bad? To me, the answer is straightforward, and it is a point that I elaborate throughout the book: Code without tests is bad code. It doesn’t matter how well written it is; it doesn’t matter how pretty or object-oriented or well-encapsulated it is. With tests, we can change the behavior of our code quickly and verifiably. Without them, we really don’t know if our code is getting better or worse.

Chapter 1 Changing Software

Four Reasons to Change Software: For simplicity’s sake, let’s look at four primary reasons to change software.

swanson

# Add color coding based on Rails environment for safety

if defined? Rails
  banner = if Rails.env.production?
    "\e[41;97;1m #{Rails.env} \e[0m "
  else
    "\e[42;97;1m #{Rails.env} \e[0m "
  end

  # Build a custom prompt