Three aspects of programming

Many people think that there is one aspect of programming: creating code. Some might recognize two (creating new code and maintaining old code). I'm not counting tasks such as testing, deployment, or support.

I think there are three aspects of programming: creation, maintenance, and destruction.

The choice of destruction often surprises people. Why would one want to destroy code? At the very least, we can simply stop using it and leave it as 'dead' code. Why would we risk removing it?

As I see it, all three tasks much occur in the proper balance. We can create a new application (and by definition create new code). We can improve the application by maintaining code - making changes to existing code, fixing problems, and correcting defects.

Adding features to an application is generally a mix of creation and maintenance. Some code can be completely new, and often some existing code is modified.

So where does destruction fit in?

Destruction can be viewed not as the wholesale obliteration of code, but as the careful removal of sections of code. Perhaps two modules can be combined into a single general module. In this case, the two old modules are removed (destroyed) and a new module is created. (Or maybe one module is removed and the second is made more general.)

Destruction can also occur with redesign. If a set of classes or functions is particularly difficult to work with, one may wish to replace them. (This assumes that the difficultness is in the implementation and not part of the problem at hand.) Replacing a set of functions with another (better-designed) set of functions is destroying one set and creating a new set. Some might argue that this is agressive maintenance, and not necessarily destruction and creation. Perhaps it is. That is a philosophical discussion.

Sometimes destruction is useful by itself. If an application has a feature that is not used, or perhaps considered harmful, then removing the feature can be an improvement.

Destruction is useful in that it simplifies and opens the way for new features.

Destruction is an aspect of programming. Used in the right amount, it is a benefit.