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Notes on dead code and the debt it hides.
Practical notes for teams maintaining code they did not all write. What dead code actually costs, how to find it without breaking things, and how to delete it safely.
How we publish
These are engineering notes describing our own practice and reasoning. Where a claim depends on your codebase rather than a general rule, we say so instead of quoting a number we cannot support.
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Engineering
What dead code actually costs, and why it is hard to delete
Dead code does not slow your program down. It slows your team down. Understanding which cost you are paying decides whether deleting it is worth the risk.