And I remember disagreeing with it the first time
My opinions then: [link|http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=115724|http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=115724]
My opinions haven't been updated since then other than to point out that now even Joel considers Mozilla a success. Furthermore he doesn't respond to the fact that the Netscape 4 code, after having proprietary bits ripped out so that they could open source, didn't run! The decision to rewrite came after looking at rewriting from scratch vs having to do a lot of work to get working code, followed by having to solve all of the problems in that code base.
Another grumpy opinion from me. Refactoring is great. By all means do it. But living in the middle of a code mess that someone is trying to refactor is kind of like living in a house that's under constant renovation. You're not sure which tap has hot water this week, and you're really praying that the showers aren't hooked up to the sewage system. (I know someone that this actually happened to!)
Refactoring is a tool. It is not a pancea. And it is not always the right tool.
Cheers,
Ben
I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)