On Wed, Jan 16, 2002 at 03:21:18PM +0800, Joshua San Juan wrote: > Code re-use :) The Holy Grail of Object-Oriented Programming? > Me guilty as charge of code re-use :) Whether it be > ActiveX (VB), modules (Perl), classes/functions (Java/PHP). > With Javascript minsan pa nga note code re-use na eh - > cut-and-paste. But then again, students should be discouraged > from getting too much of their code from the 'Net - maybe > one or two controls/functions/classes.
But then again, it's the same thing when it comes to electronics design. Using integrated circuits with NO understanding of the fundamentals that live behind these integrated circuits is definitely frowned upon. You must first learn the basics before you can even begin to think about using the more advanced stuff. Today very few people try to use discrete transistors anymore to do logic work (unless they have some specialized requirements), but nobody would use logic IC's either without at least a basic understanding of the principles behind their operation. Think of a class in a class library as an IC package. It's a lot like the "software IC" metaphor that the Gnome developers like to talk about. Unless you at least have some sort of basic understanding of what's going on under the hood, then probably you shouldn't be using it until you do, so that you understand the consequences and side-effects of what you're doing. To avoid reinventing the wheel, you must first understand how the wheel works. This is my biggest complaint about the Microsoft model of programming... A lot of MS-bsed developers simply use the tools they have without even the tiniest fraction of knowledge about what they look like inside, because that would mean reading and looking at code, and studying algorithms and data structures, which these charlatans avoid like the plague. It is flattering them to call them programmers, much less software engineers or computer scientists. In short, informed code reuse is a good thing. Ignorantly reusing code from elsewhere is usually a bad thing. -- Rafael R. Sevilla <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> +63(2) 8177746 ext. 8311 Programmer, Inter.Net Philippines +63(917) 4458925 http://dido.ph.inter.net/ OpenPGP Key ID: 0x5CDA17D8 Heute die Welt und Morgen das Sonnensystem! _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
