The best, worst codebase (Interview)

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

Jimmy Miller talks to us about his experience with a legacy codebase at his first job as a programmer. The codebase was massive, with hundreds of thousands of lines of C# and Visual Basic, and a database with over 1,000 columns. Let’s just say Jimmy got into some stuff. There’s even a Gilfoyle involved. This episode is all about his adventures while working there.

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Sponsors:

• Assembly AI – Turn voice data into summaries with AssemblyAI’s leading Speech AI models. Built by AI experts, their Speech AI models include accurate speech-to-text for voice data (such as calls, virtual meetings, and podcasts), speaker detection, sentiment analysis, chapter detection, PII redaction, and more.
• Supabase – Supabase just finished their 12th launch week! Check it out. Or get a month of Supabase Pro (FREE) by going to supabase.com/changelogpod
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• Test Double – Find out more about Test Double’s software investment problem solvers at testdouble.com.

Featuring:

• Jimmy Miller – Website, GitHub, X
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
• Jerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

• The best, worst codebase
• Join our Zulip (It’s better than Slack)

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Capitoli

1. This is The Changelog (00:00:00)

2. Sponsor: Assembly AI (00:01:31)

https://www.assemblyai.com/?utm_source=changelog&utm_medium=podcast

3. Start the show!! (00:03:52)

4. The company (00:09:13)

5. How did we get here? (00:11:49)

6. Let's go back to the columns (00:16:44)

7. The Secret Service busted in my door (00:25:06)

8. Sponsor: Supabase (00:34:36)

https://supabase.com/changelogpod

9. The Calendar (00:38:00)

10. Why stay? (00:43:44)

11. What about ops? (00:54:43)

12. Sponsor: Speakeasy (01:03:50)

https://speakeasy.com/

13. Sponsor: Test Double (01:04:39)

https://link.testdouble.com/hnh

14. Gilfoyle the thing (01:07:55)

15. Dead codebases (01:09:14)

16. The beautiful mess (01:11:28)

17. Talking to users (01:14:56)

18. Wrapping up (01:19:53)

19. Closing thoughts and stuff (01:21:21)