Manager: 'Please remove this checkbox from that page.'

Me: 'Sure thing, it was stupid anyway. Just gimme a couple of minutes.'

Legacy code: 'LOL the checkbox is wired to everything else and if you simply remove it the backend will shit itself. There is several hundred lines of inline Javascript in the HTML template with some Thymeleaf stuff managing the form data or just are there to make the code less readable. The controller for the page is a bit more than a thousand lines of spaghetti, no easy way to find where is that specific data necessary and where can be easily removed. Class variables declared between methods, dozens of nested if statements checking shit in every method and the data is passed through like half a dozen other classes. Good luck with that!'

Me: '💩.'

Most business apps end up being overcomplicated and convoluted because that’s what most businesses are:

Overcomplicated and convoluted.

Building an app to operate systems like that will always be an exercise in garbage in garbage out. Fix your process before saying wE nEeD An aPp To Do ThIs. You don’t need an app. You need a smack upside the head.

The term 'continuous rot' just came to mind as something like this: A lone/sole developer is hired to implement a solution but dispite the illusional good intent shared by everyone at the beginning, time constrains will soon come into play and the code deteriorates at a rapid pace until the developer can't handle it anymore... But someone else comes to continue the work... And the rot continues... And once again... And again...again....

Anyone?