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How Mainstream Can Code Scavenging Go?
The time-honored tradition of code scavanging has long been a way for new programmers to "break in" to a new language or task that they may not want to build from the ground up. The re-use of old code, cleaned up and tweaked to a new purpose can help developers learn many useful skills and accomplish tasks quickly, especially for small tasks that aren't of vital importance. One blogger wondered if this process could be formalized and tools could be built to help foster and enable code scavanging on a mass level. Is this a viable option, or are there just too many things to consider?
That's a great knee-jerk reaction. Without understanding the motivation behind the article, you assume that code scavenging means stealing other people's code. What they're really talking about is (legitimately) re-visiting code that you or other people have written, and then picking and modularizing bite-sized chunks. In other words, you would design a large program (mark I) and then go back and pick out useful parts, clean/debug them and have working modules (mark II) for the next project.
Also, for people who haven't read TFA, it's 9 short paragraphs long and barely an article. They talk about a "formal approach to code scavenging" without even coming close to explaining what exactly that MEANS.
An old-timer with old-timey ideas.
Code is basically an algorithm that solves a computational problem. So yes, you can cut and paste algorithms. If you want your application to be maintainable, however, you also have to solve the larger architectural problems, which is something you DON'T get when you cut and paste code.
It is one of the most misunderstood concepts about programming. A programmer fresh out of college knows how to write algorithms really well, but has no idea that there are architectural and design land mines waiting for them just down the development road.
Too many development shops will get an app "working" and think that is all there is to development, because no one has the depth of experience to look a year down the road and see that they will need to rewrite the entire app from scratch in order to make the simplest of changes.
I'm sorry, but if your program is not extensible nor maintainable then you really haven't "succeeded" at anything. You've simply fooled yourself into thinking the process is simpler than it is while screwing your clients out of their development dollars.