We are programmers, and we get paid to write code. And we all faced the situation when we get in someone else’s code (could be mine from a few hours ago, I am evolving you know) and see code that hurts my eye.
So when should I fix it?
Here are the 10 commandments:
if it works and this is an area you don’t need to touch. Don’t touch it.
if touching it is a long and hard refactor, think long and hard before jumping into it.
if the change is not covered by tests you already plan on doing. Consider the test workload addition. Automatic tests coverage is great, if you are certain it cover the necesary scenarios.
If you are already in the code, and the added workload is ok, then go and refactor like crazy.