Clean as You Go Software Development

Last week I was working on a story where I had extra time to address some nagging issues in the project. You know what I’m talking about: The build warnings that you’ve been ignoring since joining the team. Deprecated packages. “Unsupported in the next release.”

First I tackled a Docker warning from a docker-compose.yml file:

the attribute version is obsolete, it will be ignored, please remove it to avoid potential confusion

Yank it. Easy victory. Thank you very much Docker v2.

This Docker config file was building a specific version of WordPress. Version 6.7.1 to be exact. But every time I fired up the Docker container, the WP Admin interface reported I was running version 6.7.2. After checking and rechecking the Docker config file, I figured out WordPress was auto-updating itself to 6.7.2 immediately after the Docker image was created. No thanks, I don’t want a version bump - I want my local dev environment to match what my WP host is using in production and staging.

The fix is to disable auto updates. You can add something like this to your wp-config.php file:

define('WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', false);

Another thing I wanted to customize was the default WordPress plugins. The Docker images for WordPress includes the Akismet plugin. We aren’t using that so I don’t want it in the local dev environment every time we fire up the Docker container.

To solve that you can add something like this to wordpress.Dockerfile:

RUN rm -rf /usr/src/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/akismet

Now the local dev environment matches what’s in production and staging.

This got me thinking about a clean-as-you-go mindset. I do it when I’m cooking too. If I’m making quinoa I know I have about 20 minutes until it’s done.

I’ll use that 20 minutes to prep the rest of the ingredients for the meal and then start the cleanup tasks: load the dishwasher, audit the fridge for expired food, wipe down the table, etc.

I like to clean as I go because it reduces mental clutter and reduces tech (kitchen?) debt.

Don’t allow commented out code blocks to accumulate and pile up in your codebase.

Don’t allow unused packages, components, functions or dirty dishes to pile up.

If you adopt a clean-as-you-go mindset, you are making future work easier.

You are creating the mental space to solve real challenges instead of wondering about a commented out function from 6 years ago.