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Yeah, sorry, but I just don't believe that. I've worked with plenty of programmers who, when faced with a perfectly acceptable off-the-shelf solution will happi

Yeah, sorry, but I just don't believe that. I've worked with plenty of programmers who, when faced with a perfectly acceptable off-the-shelf solution will happily slog out lines upon lines of code to roll yet another CMS, authentication, syndication, blog, social... you name it application. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm not saying all programmers are this way, but a large part of what makes a good programmer is a self-belief that their ideas are superior to what already exists. External motivation is certainly a factor, but most of the best programmers I know code because of the rush they get from refining their own ideas.

BigZaphod 16y ago
I'm sure that sometimes it's the rush and sometimes it's the ego, but I find a huge problem with off-the-shelf code is that it rarely fits into what you've already written. It can be something as simple as having different naming conventions, to the almost-impossible-to-deal with problem of the third party code having a whole different idea of the place it should fit into the overall program's structure. That stuff is a tough problem, I think, and one there isn't a good/known solution for.
wccrawford 16y ago
You may not have recognized it, but a really good programmer always uses the off-the-shelf stuff if it will do the job correctly. Chances are, there's nothing on the shelf that does what they want exactly. So they code it. But when there is, they use it. How many programmers do you know that wrote and use their own programming language? OS? IDE? Web browser? Email client? There are thousands of apps that they use every week and don't code their own.
- sunkencity 16y ago
  IMHO it's not hard to make the books, but it's incredibly hard to build the shelf well. build the shelf a little wrong and chances are that the only books that will fit are the ones you have to write yourself

BigZaphod 16y ago

I'm sure that sometimes it's the rush and sometimes it's the ego, but I find a huge problem with off-the-shelf code is that it rarely fits into what you've already written. It can be something as simple as having different naming conventions, to the almost-impossible-to-deal with problem of the third party code having a whole different idea of the place it should fit into the overall program's structure. That stuff is a tough problem, I think, and one there isn't a good/known solution for.

wccrawford 16y ago

You may not have recognized it, but a really good programmer always uses the off-the-shelf stuff if it will do the job correctly. Chances are, there's nothing on the shelf that does what they want exactly. So they code it. But when there is, they use it. How many programmers do you know that wrote and use their own programming language? OS? IDE? Web browser? Email client? There are thousands of apps that they use every week and don't code their own.

sunkencity 16y ago
IMHO it's not hard to make the books, but it's incredibly hard to build the shelf well. build the shelf a little wrong and chances are that the only books that will fit are the ones you have to write yourself