Simplify Your Code Base

Maintain a healthy code base by continually pruning away dead code.  Significant time is often wasted in attempts to understand code that never gets executed — to understand why changing the code never seems to affect the outcome.  With modern version control systems, deleting unused code should never be a second thought.  Add a Commit Message explaining the dead code and remove it.  And don’t just comment it out — keep your code base as small as possible.