54: Why do people write "bad" code?

A Question of Code

It's a sad fact of the world that bad code exists. But is this just developers doing their best impression of builders? "Who put this in, mate? It's all got to be ripped out and replaced". Is all old code bad code? Are there reasons that bad code gets written? Are the justifiable excuses and mitigating factors?

If you're just starting out in your coding career you might think that only bad developers write bad code, but the truth is more nuanced than that. As you gain experience you are certain to encounter bad code written for good reasons. So what are the common reasons that bad code gets written? And how can you take steps to avoid it as much as possible in your career? Find out all this and more in this week's incredible instalment of A Question of Code.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Ed's appearance on episode 135 of the Cynical Developer podcast