The Cost of Change

There's a real problem with the way that Rails reduces the cost of change.

You see, it's a good thing. Getting started is often the hardest thing to do so not having to make big decisions up-front can let you build up momentum without spending days staring at a blank sheet of paper.

But it's also a bad thing. Instead of moving forwards you can, if you're not careful, spend ages going back and revisiting your old code (because you know how to make it that little bit better).

I've now set myself a rule only to rewrite an existing RHTML template into Markaby if (and only if) I was going to be editing it anyway. Not just because I happened to be passing.

Damn you Martin Fowler!
Damn you refactoring!
Damn you unit tests for making my life easier!