How to restrain one's self from the overwhelming urge to rewrite everything?

Question

Setup

Have you ever had the experience of going into a piece of code to make a seemingly simple change and then realizing that you\'ve just stepped into a wasteland tha

Answer 1

Personally, this is where bug tracking software such as JIRA or Bugzilla come in to place with me.

I have a hard time NOT fixing all the broken windows when I see them, but if the situation is bad enough (and time permits) I will open a ticket and either assign it to me or assign it to the group responsible, that way I don't go off on a tangent.

-- I do only what needs to be done right them, but yet the issue is documented and will be fixed in time.

-- This is not to say that small broken windows should be handled this way; small issues should always be fixed on contact IMHO.