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Cruft and Technical Debt: A Long View by: Yehuda Katz Cruft is inevitable. Whether you're working around a bug in Internet Explorer, Heroku or Ruby 1.8, our libraries and applications quickly diverge from the platonic ideal of software. In the short-term, there's no point in fretting. Rather than an indication of a development process gone awry, the technical debt merely reflects the messy reality of the surrounding ecosystem that our code lives in. For projects that last for years, though, this can lead to a resistance to re-evaluating the original assumptions that introduced the cruft to begin with. In this talk, I will give some examples of good and bad attempts to deal with this issue in the world of open source, and make some suggestions for how you can make your projects, both open-source and proprietary, more able to cope with the slow but steady long-term shifts that surround our projects.
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### Summary of "Cruft and Technical Debt: A Long View" by Yehuda Katz In this talk, Yehuda Katz examines the concept of "cruft" and its inevitable presence in software development, likening it to a form of technical obsolescence. He discusses how code that was once well-aligned with initial assumptions may become increasingly misaligned over time, leading to decreased satisfaction for developers. Katz argues that while technical debt can be controlled, cruft accumulates regardless of how well a project is maintained. #### Key Points: - **Cruft as Inevitable**: Katz introduces the notion that cruft, akin to technical debt, is an inherent aspect of programming. It is often a reflection of the changing assumptions surrounding a project rather than the result of poor design or coding practices. - **Assumption Mismatch**: Over time, the gap between initial assumptions and current realities widens, consuming more development time. Each year, the same amount of code is written, but the burden of outdated assumptions increases. - **Open Source Examples**: The talk highlights open source projects like jQuery and Rails, which have faced challenges as their foundational assumptions became outdated. For instance, jQuery faced dynamic changes in browser capabilities, while security assumptions in Rails evolved significantly, emphasizing the transient nature of technical underpinnings in software. - **Technical Obsolescence vs. Technical Debt**: Katz distinguishes technical obsolescence from technical debt. While technical debt can be intentionally taken on and managed, obsolescence is unavoidable and must be proactively planned for. - **The Role of Assumptions**: Klein emphasizes the importance of understanding and documenting assumptions within a project to address cruft effectively. Open-source projects must manage rapidly evolving technologies and community practices, necessitating constant re-evaluation of the code. - **Integration Burden**: He notes how good solutions may inadvertently offload assumptions to users, making it difficult to adapt to new paradigms when underlying assumptions change. Projects with high integration overhead risk problems when they can no longer adapt. #### Important Examples: - **jQuery's DOM Readiness API**: Katz uses this API to illustrate how assumptions about browsers' capabilities can diverge over time, leading to technical obsolescence. - **Rails Security Issues**: Citing historical vulnerabilities in Rails related to CSRF, Katz discusses the inherent risks when foundational assumptions fail over the software lifecycle. #### Key Takeaways: - Cruft cannot be wished away; it must be managed with an awareness of how assumptions evolve in the software landscape. - Developers should track assumptions and document cruft to facilitate more informed architectural decisions moving forward. - Recognizing and addressing cruft requires a mindset shift—viewing cruft not merely as legacy code but as a byproduct of a dynamic and complex environment. This session serves as a call to action for developers to thoughtfully refactor codebases and embrace evolving best practices in the face of unsustainable cruft.
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