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2008-11-05 08:48:00
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday November 04, @08:02PM
from the good-or-great dept.
Programming
eldavojohn writes "I began coding for a project that had simple requirements for my employer Web services and a test application for them. But requirements have been creeping, as they always do. Initially I had decided to use the Spring Framework with Hibernate. And I re-used a lot of libraries that made things simple and quick for me. The new requests coming in involve capabilities beyond those of the frameworks. Now, I used to be told that good programmers write code and great programmers reuse code. It's starting to look like I would have saved myself a whole lot of time if I had written the database transaction using JDBC instead of Hibernate now that I'm married to this object model framework, some of this stuff doesn't look doable. So what is better for the majority of software projects out there: reuse code, or code from scratch? What elements or characteristics of a problem point to one option over the other?"
It's not rewriting code or reusing code that makes you a great programmer. It's knowing when to rewrite code and when to reuse code that makes you a great programmer.
- the first case is trying to make the best of what you have and building on that
To add to this, never ever simply "reuse" code; if you just copy and paste you'll end up with a horribly designed hack job worth of TDWTF. Instead, take what you have and massage it into place.
In this particular case, it sounds like your design no longer hashes well with the requirements. My suggestion is to start rewriting/reworking isolated portions of the code base and create a temporary compatibility layer (if necessary) to interface with the old code. Continue doing this until the entire application is converted over to the new design.
Did he really make a mistake? He already has one version out and is now finding out what the software really needs to do. That sounds pretty damn successful to me. Now he's dithering about rewriting and replacing some of the libraries, which he would have had to do anyway even if they were custom-written.
If he had written everything from scratch:
His original choice was correct. As far as replacing Hibernate, he's in just as good a position now as he would have been if he had written his own persistence layer. Remember, he chose Hibernate, which turned out to be unsuitable, because didn't know the requirements when he started. He would have been damn lucky if he had just happened to develop a custom persistance layer that neatly anticipated the unknown requirements. So, ripping out or rewriting the persistence layer was inevitable. If you're going to throw code away, it might as well be code that you got for free, instead of code that you sweated and toiled over.
If you're really dead set against replacing or rewriting any libraries, the only way to improve your odds is to use the biggest, oldest, kitchen-sinkiest, most bloatiest library you can find.
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On the spot!! If the "poster" hadn't reused code from the get-go he was probably still coding. But instead of now making a choice between "hanging in" and "starting to rewrite", there is a third and IMHO better option: Throw out the framework that doesn't fit anymore and replace it with a better fitting one. Don't jump immediately into the "and now I've to write it all from scratch" excuse.
Your original "reuse" decision was the right one, but appearently you didn't pick the right framework. Which is normal, because at the beginning of the project you didn't know exactly what the requirements would be. Based on your improved knowledge of the application, you should redo your investigation of frameworks and find one that has the right fit.
And if you can't seem to find one that fits, you need to do some deep-deep-deep thinking. Is your situation really so unique that nothing "standard" out there will fit in, or is it the too often happening "not invented here" syndrome.
Don't fall into the trap of "I can do it better myself". Yes, I'm sure you can :-), but you won't have the time!! Or better said, your boss won't allow you the time.
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If you'd tried to write it all yourself from scratch from the beginning you'd still be coding and you wouldn't have gotten the feedback about what needs to change as quickly. Prototype quickly then optimize later.