Far too often, web developers come to the conclusion that if their site looks good and functions well, then their job is done.
I disagree.
In software engineering, refactoring is a major aspect of good development. Generally speaking, it consists of taking working code, cleaning it up, making the general architecture more cohesive, and ultimately easier to maintain.
Some time ago, the following tweet showed up in my stream:
It’s true, right?
But why would we negate this idea in the context of web development? After all, we’re frequently going to revisit our code – be it markup, CSS, or JavaScript – and it gets much harder to work with over time the less refactoring it receives.
If that’s not motivation enough, remember that the web is open source – people may evaluate your skills by the code you produce :).
John Saddington says
i think in software it’s great to be leveled against the code you create, especially in the web. too often we don’t even think to check under the hood.