Hall of Fametef201615 min readintermediate
Write code that is easy to delete, not easy to extend
Summary
The article argues that code should be written to be easy to delete rather than to be reusable, advocating duplication, layering, and disposable implementations. It suggests copy‑pasting early, isolating hard‑to‑change parts, using thin wrappers, and accepting big, throw‑away code to simplify future removal.
- Copy‑paste early; only refactor to a shared function after duplication proves useful.
- Separate utility code from business logic to keep concerns isolated.
- Layer APIs with thin, opinionated wrappers over lower‑level libraries.
- Write disposable, large‑scale code first and delete whole sections later rather than many tiny changes.
Software engineers maintaining long‑lived codebases should care because the advice targets reducing future maintenance cost by designing for easy removal.
5/10
