7 Ways to Manage Large-Scale Taxonomies:

An experience-based, practical guide to controlling hundreds or thousands of tags.

https://meiert.com/blog/large-scale-taxonomies/

#webdev #maintainability

Research on the usage of #AI code assistants and the #maintainability of a system.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.00788

Have yet to read the paper in detail but the summary in this video is already quite interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9EbCb5A408

Most “architecture” conversations start with boxes and arrows.
The systems that survive start with invariants.

What must never happen? What must always be true? What can be eventually true?
If you cannot answer those without drawing a diagram, the diagram is premature.

I’ve seen beautiful designs fail because nobody wrote down the invariants.
And I’ve seen ugly systems run for a decade because someone did.

#SoftwareEngineering #SoftwareDesign #Maintainability #Architecture #ByernNotes

#Development #Approaches
A web component super power · Done right, inheritance shines in design systems https://ilo.im/169d48

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#Inheritance #OOP #Reusability #Maintainability #JavaScript #WebComponents #DesignSystems #WebDesign #WebDev #Frontend

Legacy systems are often described as fragile.
In reality, they have survived more change than most greenfield projects ever will.

They’ve outlived reorganizations, rewrites, vendor switches, and architectural trends.
They may be ugly, but they are still standing.

Fragile things don’t usually last decades.

#LegacyCode #SoftwareEngineering #SystemsHistory #Maintainability #ByernNotes

Most bugs are not caused by missing features.
They come from unclear boundaries, leaky abstractions, or names that stopped matching reality.

When terminology drifts, code becomes misleading.
When intent is unclear, behavior becomes surprising.

Naming things remains undefeated.
Mostly because we keep underestimating it.

#SoftwareDesign #EngineeringBasics #SystemsThinking #Maintainability #ByernNotes

StyleX vs. Tailwind: Meta’s Take on CSS-in-JS Maintainability, by @ricmac (@TheNewStack):

https://thenewstack.io/stylex-vs-tailwind-metas-take-on-css-in-js-maintainability/

#tailwind #comparisons #cssinjs #maintainability #css #javascript

Nobody Knows How Large Software Products Work, by @seangoedecke.bsky.social:

https://www.seangoedecke.com/nobody-knows-how-software-products-work/

#programming #softwaredesign #complexity #maintainability

The Nine Levels of JavaScript Dependency Hell, by @andrewnez:

https://nesbitt.io/2026/01/05/the-nine-levels-of-javascript-dependency-hell.html

#javascript #dependencies #maintainability

New article is live on my WriteFreely:
“Technical debt isn’t just code, it’s lost context.”

Most teams can point at code debt: missing tests, messy modules, shortcuts taken under pressure. The harder (and often more expensive) debt is the part you cannot point to: the *why* that evaporated. The moment a reasonable decision becomes an undocumented assumption, then a “hard requirement,” and finally a constraint that nobody dares to touch.

The article is built around a pattern I keep seeing in real systems: **Decision → Assumption → Constraint → Incident (or slow bleed)**, plus the symptoms that show up in delivery, operations, and team dynamics when context turns into folklore.

I also propose a few lightweight countermeasures that do not require a documentation bureaucracy: mini-ADRs that take ten minutes, PR prompts that force future-facing context into the open, a simple “folklore detection” checklist, and a realistic 30-day adoption plan for normal teams.

If you’ve ever inherited a system where “don’t touch that, it caused an incident last time” was considered documentation, this one is for you.

👉 https://authorial.org/byern/technical-debt-isnt-just-code-its-lost-context

#SoftwareEngineering #TechnicalDebt #Maintainability #EngineeringCulture #SoftwareArchitecture #Documentation #ADRs #KnowledgeManagement #ByernNotes

The systems that last are rarely the smartest ones in the room.
They are not the most elegant, fashionable, or exciting.

They survive because people can still understand them at 3 AM, five years later, with incomplete context, stale documentation, and a failing debugger.
They respect constraints.
They change slowly and deliberately.

Elegance helps.
Clarity survives.

#SoftwareEngineering #SystemsThinking #Maintainability #TechExperience #EngineeringCulture #ByernNotes

Most automation suites fail silently — until maintenance costs explode. Savi Grover explains how Java SOLID principles prevent that, starting with Page Object design.

A guide for beginners who want longevity: https://javapro.io/2026/01/06/learning-java-automation-the-solid-way-a-beginners-guide-to-learn-page-object-model-with-java-solid-principles/

#Java #AutomationTesting #Maintainability

Pluralistic: Code is a liability (not an asset) (06 Jan 2026)

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/06/1000x-liability/

I’ve worked on systems newer than today’s trends and older than some of today’s developers.
The ones that survived were rarely the most elegant, fashionable, or exciting.

They were understandable.
They respected constraints.
They changed slowly and deliberately.

Most engineering problems are not solved by adding more layers.
They are solved by deciding which ones not to add.

#SoftwareEngineering #SystemsThinking #TechExperience #Maintainability #EngineeringCulture #SoftwareDesign #LongTermThinking #ByernNotes

What Developers Really Mean by “Bad Code”, by @jetbrains.com:

https://blog.jetbrains.com/qodana/2025/11/what-is-bad-code/

#maintainability #scalability #consistency #security #quality

#Development #Analyses
The great betrayal of frontend sanity · “I’d call CSS-in-JS over-engineering disguised as progress.” https://ilo.im/168rnj

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#CSSinJS #DX #Maintainability #Website #Browser #WebPerf #WebDev #Frontend #CSS #JavaScript

#Development #Guidelines
Treat AI-generated code as a draft · “Use AI to move faster, but keep your hands on the wheel.” https://ilo.im/168p17

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#Programming #Coding #Understanding #AI #Productivity #Reliability #Maintainability #Teamwork #WebDev #Frontend #Backend

Now Available: “On Web Development II”!, by @j9t [@frontenddogma]:

https://meiert.com/blog/on-web-development-2/

#books #html #css #engineeringmanagement #maintainability #quality

🕵️‍♂️ Is your architecture a crime scene? 🔍

At #SAGconf, @ManfredSteyer explores how forensic code analysis reveals hidden patterns, hotspots & change coupling — helping you build sustainable, maintainable systems. 💡

Discover how to investigate your architecture before it’s too late 👉 https://t1p.de/tcks6

#SAG2025 #SoftwareArchitecture #Maintainability #CodeAnalysis #iSAQB

#Development #Guidelines
Let it run vs. make it run · Trust the browser or trust your code? https://ilo.im/167xwz

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#Programming #Coding #Maintainability #Browser #WebPerf #WebDev #Frontend #HTML #CSS #JavaScript