Richard Groß
@richargh.de
Software archeologist, web brutalist and health check expert. After 10 years in the business I'm about to become a teenage developer. I'm a conference speaker and enjoy mastering TDD, BDD, DDD, decoupled design and even practices that don't start with D.
Be very wary of AI suggestions in (legacy) code. Don't offload your thinking.
Suppose you have a legacy code base and you want to quickly understand what to focus on. An easy idea is to ask Claude:
> What are the biggest issues of this codebase and in what priority should I fix them?
Suppose you have a legacy code base and you want to quickly understand what to focus on. An easy idea is to ask Claude:
> What are the biggest issues of this codebase and in what priority should I fix them?
November 13, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Be very wary of AI suggestions in (legacy) code. Don't offload your thinking.
Suppose you have a legacy code base and you want to quickly understand what to focus on. An easy idea is to ask Claude:
> What are the biggest issues of this codebase and in what priority should I fix them?
Suppose you have a legacy code base and you want to quickly understand what to focus on. An easy idea is to ask Claude:
> What are the biggest issues of this codebase and in what priority should I fix them?
Yes, that’s what I said. It moved to submitted status one month ago. Feels significant but it could also be another year before it lands in JDK 27. Do you have some insights? Not sure how long XL JEPs typically stay in submitted, then inflight status.
October 29, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Yes, that’s what I said. It moved to submitted status one month ago. Feels significant but it could also be another year before it lands in JDK 27. Do you have some insights? Not sure how long XL JEPs typically stay in submitted, then inflight status.
In projects with hundreds of thousands of lines, it is easy to lose track of code, architecture and quality. Are we still on the right track, are we blocking ourselves with internal dependencies, or are we already stuck? Software is immaterial, we cannot see how it is doing.
October 15, 2025 at 7:47 AM
In projects with hundreds of thousands of lines, it is easy to lose track of code, architecture and quality. Are we still on the right track, are we blocking ourselves with internal dependencies, or are we already stuck? Software is immaterial, we cannot see how it is doing.
These can also be visualized nicely. The OSS project codecharta.com visualizes them as a map where each file is shown as a building. The larger, the more loc. the taller, the more complexity. The redder, the more churn.
October 5, 2025 at 6:00 PM
These can also be visualized nicely. The OSS project codecharta.com visualizes them as a map where each file is shown as a building. The larger, the more loc. the taller, the more complexity. The redder, the more churn.
Last week I had a blast at #CTOCraftCon Berlin! I met so many amazing new people, had some great exchanges about fixing legacy in code as well as house (even held a talk about it) and I also got a very a good glimpse into state of the art software development.
October 1, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Last week I had a blast at #CTOCraftCon Berlin! I met so many amazing new people, had some great exchanges about fixing legacy in code as well as house (even held a talk about it) and I also got a very a good glimpse into state of the art software development.
On Wednesday I'll be speaking at #CTOCraftCon Berlin! I'll share insights from 13 years of renovating software projects, and the similarities that I noticed to renovating my own house. Anyone up for a coffee?
September 22, 2025 at 7:35 AM
On Wednesday I'll be speaking at #CTOCraftCon Berlin! I'll share insights from 13 years of renovating software projects, and the similarities that I noticed to renovating my own house. Anyone up for a coffee?
On Tuesday I gave a presentation about Rediscovering Legacy Code at Java Forum Nord. We had so much fun in the Q&A afterwards that we went quite a bit overtime. The hardest question was "I want to fix it but how do I change my project/team/department?" Let's try to answer that.
September 18, 2025 at 12:53 PM
On Tuesday I gave a presentation about Rediscovering Legacy Code at Java Forum Nord. We had so much fun in the Q&A afterwards that we went quite a bit overtime. The hardest question was "I want to fix it but how do I change my project/team/department?" Let's try to answer that.
Legacy code projects struggle before coding even begins. Which features are implemented where at what maturity level is often unclear. A gap exists between domain and what is implemented in code.
Next week @javaforumnord.bsky.social I'll present the patterns that we need to rediscover the domain.
Next week @javaforumnord.bsky.social I'll present the patterns that we need to rediscover the domain.
September 12, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Legacy code projects struggle before coding even begins. Which features are implemented where at what maturity level is often unclear. A gap exists between domain and what is implemented in code.
Next week @javaforumnord.bsky.social I'll present the patterns that we need to rediscover the domain.
Next week @javaforumnord.bsky.social I'll present the patterns that we need to rediscover the domain.
Try it with a text of your own choice. Does the "summary" actually repeat the most important points? Or is it more like a sketch where the head is missing?
September 8, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Try it with a text of your own choice. Does the "summary" actually repeat the most important points? Or is it more like a sketch where the head is missing?
Remaining schedule for 2025. Hannover, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt. Historic towns, historic presentations. That is, a lot about legacy code :)
Anyone up for a coffee? Let's talk about creating options where there were none before. Or programming languages :D
Anyone up for a coffee? Let's talk about creating options where there were none before. Or programming languages :D
September 5, 2025 at 7:17 AM
Remaining schedule for 2025. Hannover, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt. Historic towns, historic presentations. That is, a lot about legacy code :)
Anyone up for a coffee? Let's talk about creating options where there were none before. Or programming languages :D
Anyone up for a coffee? Let's talk about creating options where there were none before. Or programming languages :D
Last week I posted about the end of generative AI; how it could be brought down by security catastrophes. On the same day the popular Nx build system was infected. If you or your company are building web apps, that is probably you. The attack itself is fascinating:
September 1, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Last week I posted about the end of generative AI; how it could be brought down by security catastrophes. On the same day the popular Nx build system was infected. If you or your company are building web apps, that is probably you. The attack itself is fascinating:
@martinfowler.com has a bliki about the tech debt quadrant. Only the prudent side is actual tech debt. The other is technical neglect.
August 3, 2025 at 4:20 PM
@martinfowler.com has a bliki about the tech debt quadrant. Only the prudent side is actual tech debt. The other is technical neglect.
Now how did it come up with these predictions? Did it in apply Newtonian physics to calculate the next step? The predicted force can be seen in the image. Instead of always pointing to the sun, the predicted force points in seemingly random directions.
July 22, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Now how did it come up with these predictions? Did it in apply Newtonian physics to calculate the next step? The predicted force can be seen in the image. Instead of always pointing to the sun, the predicted force points in seemingly random directions.
"3 Billion Devices Run Java," according to Oracle's marketing. It has been around for 30 years and is currently available in version 24. It is also famously backwards-compatible. How do you structure such a project?
July 15, 2025 at 12:20 PM
"3 Billion Devices Run Java," according to Oracle's marketing. It has been around for 30 years and is currently available in version 24. It is also famously backwards-compatible. How do you structure such a project?
Really looking forward to speaking at #CTOCraftCon Berlin on 23-24 September! I'll share insights from 13 years of renovating software projects, and the similarities that I noticed to renovating my own house. While software is not "architecture", it turns out that renovating does have similarities.
June 26, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Really looking forward to speaking at #CTOCraftCon Berlin on 23-24 September! I'll share insights from 13 years of renovating software projects, and the similarities that I noticed to renovating my own house. While software is not "architecture", it turns out that renovating does have similarities.
Wir starten mit dem ersten OpenJDK, Version 7 im Jahre 2011. Schon damals war das JDK riesig und hatte 3,4 Millionen Codezeilen. Damals machten Tests allerdings nur 12 % des gesamten Codes aus. Aus heutiger Sicht viel zu wenig. javapro.io/de/wp-conten...
June 16, 2025 at 6:08 AM
Wir starten mit dem ersten OpenJDK, Version 7 im Jahre 2011. Schon damals war das JDK riesig und hatte 3,4 Millionen Codezeilen. Damals machten Tests allerdings nur 12 % des gesamten Codes aus. Aus heutiger Sicht viel zu wenig. javapro.io/de/wp-conten...
Do not pick an LLM if you are looking for facts. Also, as depicted in the recent Apple paper, do not pick a Large Reasoning Model (LRM) if you are looking for reasoning or thinking. Depending on who you ask, neither of these are new insights. They can both be inferred from how these models work.
June 12, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Do not pick an LLM if you are looking for facts. Also, as depicted in the recent Apple paper, do not pick a Large Reasoning Model (LRM) if you are looking for reasoning or thinking. Depending on who you ask, neither of these are new insights. They can both be inferred from how these models work.
There’s some amazing children’s cafés out there.
June 11, 2025 at 4:31 AM
There’s some amazing children’s cafés out there.
This flexibility is amazing. I can share code but at any point I can use platform-native code instead, both for UI and logic code. This makes it the superiorest (that is now a word) multi-platform-platform.
June 3, 2025 at 7:25 AM
This flexibility is amazing. I can share code but at any point I can use platform-native code instead, both for UI and logic code. This makes it the superiorest (that is now a word) multi-platform-platform.
The best part is that CMP+KMP have an easy on-boarding and off-boarding process. You can gradually migrate onto CMP+KMP and if certain use cases do not work with the tech, you can also migrate back to native again.
June 3, 2025 at 7:25 AM
The best part is that CMP+KMP have an easy on-boarding and off-boarding process. You can gradually migrate onto CMP+KMP and if certain use cases do not work with the tech, you can also migrate back to native again.
Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP)
* -> run logic (not UI) on web/mobile/native platform:
* New KMP-IntelliJ Plugin has better cross-language support (Swift+Kotlin interop), compose multiplatform support, compose hot reload.
* -> run logic (not UI) on web/mobile/native platform:
* New KMP-IntelliJ Plugin has better cross-language support (Swift+Kotlin interop), compose multiplatform support, compose hot reload.
June 3, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP)
* -> run logic (not UI) on web/mobile/native platform:
* New KMP-IntelliJ Plugin has better cross-language support (Swift+Kotlin interop), compose multiplatform support, compose hot reload.
* -> run logic (not UI) on web/mobile/native platform:
* New KMP-IntelliJ Plugin has better cross-language support (Swift+Kotlin interop), compose multiplatform support, compose hot reload.
Compose Multiplatform (CMP)
* -> build UIs with Kotlin on desktop/mobile/native platform:
* Complete out-of-the-box UI toolkit for any platform
* Compose for iOS is now stable
* Stable targets are now: Desktop, Android, iOS
* Web target is currently alpha
* -> build UIs with Kotlin on desktop/mobile/native platform:
* Complete out-of-the-box UI toolkit for any platform
* Compose for iOS is now stable
* Stable targets are now: Desktop, Android, iOS
* Web target is currently alpha
June 3, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Compose Multiplatform (CMP)
* -> build UIs with Kotlin on desktop/mobile/native platform:
* Complete out-of-the-box UI toolkit for any platform
* Compose for iOS is now stable
* Stable targets are now: Desktop, Android, iOS
* Web target is currently alpha
* -> build UIs with Kotlin on desktop/mobile/native platform:
* Complete out-of-the-box UI toolkit for any platform
* Compose for iOS is now stable
* Stable targets are now: Desktop, Android, iOS
* Web target is currently alpha