Hi there, I'm devnulli 👋.

I HATE legacy software. I hate bad software design. That I really do. Right now, I live deep in that legacy world. When I entered my current job, I was SHOCKED! When I saw the first code lines, my first instinct was (literally) to stand up, and quit right away. I would never accept working in that environment. With that multi million € piece of worthless crap, sold as a success to the stakeholders...

Next thing I remember, I had a talk with my boss, and what can I say. He said something in the effect of. "Well? How do you like it here?". And I think I said something like "I have never seen anything that bad before, in 13 years of my software-engineering career"... and he kept on: "Yeh well, I heard it's not that good..." he said, pretty pragmatic about it. "Yes, we need to tackle that. We need people who see the problem." --- Ok, I said. I want to help.

Inner Monologue

(Mind: "WAIT.. YOU WANTED TO QUIT.. ARE YOU CRAZY? HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?? THEY WORK THAT WAY FOR YEARS, DECADES.. YOUR OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE MAN. WHAT THEY NEED IS CONSIDERING THERAPY!!") (Heart: "Yea. Sorry but I cant resist watching that story to the end.."")

Why didn't I just leave that nonsense?

It took me a while to realize what just happened. My opinion about that source code is somewhere between "time to put it to sleep" and "sue the creators"... Why should I stay and and fight to save that? Tell you why.

Of course, I could just shake my head and move on to something else? I could do that. But I would miss a huge story. Everyone can produce good and clean code in a good and clean environment. We learn that fast. But.. somewhere in my belly I felt, that I would miss hell of a story, if I take the easy way out now. And a lot of learnings.

• What excactly does that mean: good and clean enviroment
• Best way to learn that is to try and create one myself
• Not from scratch, but from hell.

So I chose the first option.. And I learned to love my job. Not for the coding (not yet). It's god damn legacy hell.. BUT:

I LOVE that In my current job, I currently have a huge chance to try and move something big from full legacy to state of the art, and write down my experiences and stories I encounter on that road. A chance, I will never get again in my life. So. I stayed.

SO LET'S SEE

Lets see what I will learn from this journey.

• Will I succeed? Or will it break me?

• Will I be strong enough to battle that legacy pain creeping in my mind? Or will it zombify me, make me a legacy programmer as well.

  • Will I become slave to those processes and empty and inefficient word hulls??
  • Will I become a messiaas? Not only Promising but only delivering an Island of happiness? A way out?
  • Will they even listen?

• Will that legacy system change me? Break me? Or will I change that damn legacy software? Turn around the wheel?

• Will I be crucified by those developes and consultants who fear or fail to understand these concepts? Who now live pretty good of the cost, surreality, and inefficience, and damage they caused? Or worse? Make ME become a "dark side" programmer? One of them?

• Time will tell.

• I think someday I'll write a book about that. Yeeees!