{"id":29601941,"url":"https://github.com/dislogical/coldenslaw","last_synced_at":"2025-10-09T16:40:53.018Z","repository":{"id":239227693,"uuid":"798918308","full_name":"dislogical/ColdensLaw","owner":"dislogical","description":"A website for Colden's Law","archived":false,"fork":false,"pushed_at":"2024-09-27T20:19:31.000Z","size":21,"stargazers_count":1,"open_issues_count":0,"forks_count":0,"subscribers_count":1,"default_branch":"main","last_synced_at":"2025-09-19T08:10:21.634Z","etag":null,"topics":[],"latest_commit_sha":null,"homepage":"https://coldenslaw.com/","language":"Ruby","has_issues":true,"has_wiki":null,"has_pages":null,"mirror_url":null,"source_name":null,"license":"wtfpl","status":null,"scm":"git","pull_requests_enabled":true,"icon_url":"https://github.com/dislogical.png","metadata":{"files":{"readme":"README.md","changelog":null,"contributing":null,"funding":null,"license":"LICENSE","code_of_conduct":null,"threat_model":null,"audit":null,"citation":null,"codeowners":null,"security":null,"support":null,"governance":null,"roadmap":null,"authors":null,"dei":null,"publiccode":null,"codemeta":null,"zenodo":null}},"created_at":"2024-05-10T18:53:30.000Z","updated_at":"2024-09-27T20:19:34.000Z","dependencies_parsed_at":"2024-05-10T20:45:51.989Z","dependency_job_id":"7c4aae85-7537-414f-a6cc-a5c8742965e1","html_url":"https://github.com/dislogical/ColdensLaw","commit_stats":null,"previous_names":["coldencullen/coldenslaw","dislogical/coldenslaw"],"tags_count":0,"template":false,"template_full_name":null,"purl":"pkg:github/dislogical/ColdensLaw","repository_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/dislogical%2FColdensLaw","tags_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/dislogical%2FColdensLaw/tags","releases_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/dislogical%2FColdensLaw/releases","manifests_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/dislogical%2FColdensLaw/manifests","owner_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners/dislogical","download_url":"https://codeload.github.com/dislogical/ColdensLaw/tar.gz/refs/heads/main","sbom_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/dislogical%2FColdensLaw/sbom","scorecard":null,"host":{"name":"GitHub","url":"https://github.com","kind":"github","repositories_count":279001779,"owners_count":26083173,"icon_url":"https://github.com/github.png","version":null,"created_at":"2022-05-30T11:31:42.601Z","updated_at":"2022-07-04T15:15:14.044Z","status":"online","status_checked_at":"2025-10-09T02:00:07.460Z","response_time":59,"last_error":null,"robots_txt_status":"success","robots_txt_updated_at":"2025-07-24T06:49:26.215Z","robots_txt_url":"https://github.com/robots.txt","online":true,"can_crawl_api":true,"host_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub","repositories_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories","repository_names_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repository_names","owners_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners"}},"keywords":[],"created_at":"2025-07-20T13:33:02.124Z","updated_at":"2025-10-09T16:40:52.983Z","avatar_url":"https://github.com/dislogical.png","language":"Ruby","funding_links":[],"categories":[],"sub_categories":[],"readme":"---\n# Feel free to add content and custom Front Matter to this file.\n# To modify the layout, see https://jekyllrb.com/docs/themes/#overriding-theme-defaults\n\ntitle: All Code is Tech Debt\ndescription: Colden's Law\npermalink: /\ngithub.is_project_page: false\n---\n\nAll code written must be maintained (and ultimately replaced).\nTherefore, all engineers must do their best to not write code that does not need to be written.\n\n## Some cases where Colden's Law applies\n\n### 1. Dependencies\n\nYes, dependencies count as code, and therefore count as tech debt. [Exhibit A](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Npm_left-pad_incident).\n\n### 2. The Standard Library\n\nYou are not smarter than the authors of the STL (unless you are the author of EASTL, in which case this page does not apply to you).\nYou should use it unless you have a _very_ good reason not to.\n\n## Some cases where Colden's Law does _not_ apply\n\n### 1. Copy-Pasting Code\n\nDRY is a great approach, right up until it isn't. If you find yourself writing a library function to consolidate 2 blocks of code that are similar but not the same, then you've created a library function with an API surface area you are now responsible for.\nSee [Hyrum's Law](https://www.hyrumslaw.com/) for why this is bad.\n\n### 2. Tests\n\nIf you have ever said or thought out loud \"wow all of these tests are tech debt\" then I guarantee you that at some point in your career, someone you've worked with has spit in your coffee.\n\n## Alternatively\n\n\u003e Red Code is Best Code\n\n\u003e The fastest code is the code you don't write\n\n\u003e No code? No bugs.\n\n\u003e \"Delete as much code as possible, but no more\" - Drew Solomon\n\n## Who is Colden?\n\nNobody knows. If you figure it out, please alert the authorities.\n","project_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Fdislogical%2Fcoldenslaw","html_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/projects/github.com%2Fdislogical%2Fcoldenslaw","lists_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Fdislogical%2Fcoldenslaw/lists"}