comment on

Yes, it would have been cheaper and faster to throw this code away and start over

Maybe. For another point of view, see Joel Spolsky on not rewriting from scratch.

I agree with adrianh. If a component is not broken, don't rewrite it. Rewrite a component when you find a number of bugs in it. But first write a regression test suite for the component. I've seen many folks over the years throw out old code, rewrite it ... and introduce a heap of new bugs in the process. If you come into a new company and introduce a swag of new bugs in previously working code, you will start to smell very badly.

See also:

Swallowing an elephant in 10 easy steps by ELISHEVA (Describes how she tackles big problems to keep moving forward rather than going around in circles)
Dealing with sloppy code
Becoming familiar with a too-big codebase?
Analyzing large Perl code base.
Perl Medic: Transforming Legacy Code by Peter J. Scott
Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers
Object-oriented Reengineering Patterns book now available as a free download

Update: Legacy Code References Added Later

Nobody Expects the Agile Imposition (Part VI): Architecture (discusses refactoring vs rewriting of very large code bases)
The Boy Scout Rule (apply the Boy Scout rule of "leave the campground cleaner than when you found it" to your code)
Unix shell versus Perl (explains why Perl is a better choice for large code bases than Unix shell)

Update: Testing References Added Later

In reply to Re: Strategies for maintenance of horrible code? by eyepopslikeamosquito
in thread Strategies for maintenance of horrible code? by converter

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