I'm no management expert, but I'd be surprised if a boss who won't set aside time to fix a few undefined variables nevertheless green-lights rewriting everything in C#.
On Wed, 28 Aug 2019 at 12:26, Chase Peeler <chasepee...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 12:12 PM Mark Randall <mar...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On 28/08/2019 16:37, Chase Peeler wrote: > > > I'm also not the one that built it on the eggshells - I'm just the one > > that > > > is now in charge of developing the system that someone else left > sitting > > > eggshells. > > > > That's a challenge which at some point or another will face all > > technical leads. > > > > You have to go to the people making the decisions and say: > > > > "Okay, look, we've got ourselves a problem here. We've dug ourselves > > into a hole by cutting corners, building up debt, and we've never made > > it a priority to fix it, and now it's causing us problems. It's not one > > person's fault, it's something that has collectively developed over > > time, but the reality is, the problem is there and needs fixing." > > > > But that's a lie. We have made it a priority to fix things that are > broken. I wouldn't consider undeclared variables cutting corners. We've > also invested a lot into making sure we aren't building up additional > technical debt with the new stuff we're fixing. > > > > And when the manager asks "What problems?" you say something like: > > > > "The language we use is moving towards a much stricter approach to > > handling ambiguous or error prone code. This can only be considered a > > good thing, but it is going to mean that a lot of our technical debt is > > going to manifest as errors that will stop our site from function..." > > > > Then the manager will go "Can't we just keep using the version we are > on?" > > > > You reply: > > > > "We can for a short period, perhaps an extra year or two, but the > > reality is that PHP is moving forward, and the current version won't be > > supported forever, and even if it were, we would be missing out on major > > performance enhancements and new features that could help us to build > > new features". > > > > Or, they go "Maybe we should look at some options that aren't always > breaking things. Our other system built with C# has never had that issue." > > > > The manager says: "Lay this out to me" > > > > You reply: > > > > "It's like our company car still works, but it no longer tighter meets > > emissions standards so they won't let us take it into the city any more" > > > > In this case, it's like "Our car still works, but, you the left/right > arrows on the volume knob have worn off, so, you can't tell by looking at > it whether you turn it clockwise or counter clockwise to turn up the > volume. > > > > "Crap", the boss replies "Okay, we had best fix that" > > > > Boss replies "Yea, that sounds like a pretty stupid reason to have to > upgrade. We'll wait." > > > > -- > > Mark Randall > > > > -- > > PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List > > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > > > > > > > > -- > Chase Peeler > chasepee...@gmail.com >
