Outstanding Objects (Developed Dirt Cheap)

Mark Leighton Fisher writes "Some readers might be interested in Outstanding Objects (Developed Dirt Cheap); or "Why Don't Developers Search the Literature?" It seems like I still see a lot of wheel reinvention going on, even with the wealth of code and information now available on the Net."

Comments

Simple explanation

[rickms]

It's because all us developers think our way is the better way :P

Rick

Think of it this way

[Iron Monkey543]

Let me make an analogy between using someone else's code vs. writing your own and buying a (not custom) PC vs. building one yourself (a few years ago).

First, the PC came with this video card I didn't like, so I went out and bought a different one. The OS that came with this OS don't use, so I have to reformat the hard drive. The case was also ALL plastic and it was hard for me to drill some clean holes into it for my modding. I had to go out and buy a different case. In fact, i spent my time reassembling the whole darn thing just to make it fit my needs. I should have just built it from scratch and save alot of time!

That's why I don't like to use someone else's code. Now, I would LOOK at their code and see how it works, and then write my own to work the same way. If I am lucky, their code is already the exact way I want it, but it's very rare.

Very modular codes however, are useful at times. THe only problem is that it comes with other crap u dont need and takes up coding space, but that's just nitpicking when you dont have any time.

Re:Are you projecting?

[Monkey-Man2000]

Apache Jakarta has some really great libraries for Java. I use them extensively. That allows me to worry about high-level issues as opposed to being bogged down with the details of XML-parsing and validation, translation, etc. Additionally, Jakarta Commons has a number of useful tools that I would find myself re-implementing if they weren't already available, like the HttpClient. I've been really impressed with the stuff they've produced. However, it certainly adds to the bloat. Also from what I've used of it, Struts is awesome.

Re:Why wheels often reinvented

[realdpk]

Not to mention how much CPU time each of those takes. For example, check out the "tinyurl.pl" example in CPAN. It uses:

use POE;
use POE::Component::IRC;
use LWP::UserAgent;
use HTTP::Response;
use HTTP::Request::Common;
use URI::Find;

Each of which probably use a good number of libraries themselves. Running perl -wc on the script takes .6 user CPU seconds alone - an approximation of how much CPU time it takes to start up (and by my measurement, a pretty accurate approximation).

Hell, check this out:

$ time perl -e "use POE"
0.23s real 0.21s user 0.01s system

Sick.

Re:Library bloat

[Balinares]

#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys
from qt import *
a=QApplication(sys.argv)
img=QLabel(None)
img .setPixmap(QPixmap("my_image.png"))
a.setMainWidg et(img)
img.show()
a.exec_loop()

9 lines.
You're welcome.
It would probably have been even shorter in Perl.

'Bloat' is not knowing the right tools for the task.