Mobiconf 2018: Carola Nitz, VideoLabs
summary
Codebases contain decades-old classes (one example dates to 2008) and accumulate fragile branches of checks that slow development and morale. Practical fixes include CI that builds lowest supported OS, enforcing PR rules with Danger, style enforcement with SwiftLint, and releases automated with fastlane. For changes, prefer incremental tactics: write tests or short release checklists, add features via sprout/rep classes or feature flags, use extraction to split giant functions, and find dead code with grep and the static analyzer.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Introduction and motivation
- 2:28What is legacy code
- 5:19Problems with legacy code
- 7:50Automate all the things
- 12:25Incremental changes over rewrites
- 16:49Adding features without breaking code
- 18:56Refactoring old code
- 21:29Feature flags and dead code
- 23:37Summary and final advice
- 25:30Q&A session
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