Andy Smith's Blog

Page.RegisterStartupScript('Andy', 'MetaBuilders_WebControls_GainKnowledge();');

why do people hate third-party code

Quite often when I post to forums, newsgroups, or lists, I am posting a link to one of the custom  controls or components on my site. And usually, the person uses the control and moves on with their app.

But every once in a while, i see somebody say something like, "I don't want to use a dll", or "can't I do this with my own code?". Now, I don't really mind if somebody doesn't want to use my stuff... it's not like metabuilders puts food on my table... but I really just Don't Get It.©

Why do some people favor adding dozens of lines of complex code to their pages, multiple times, when there is a tested solution, pre compiled, with source code, available for free? Whenever I see that comment left by somebody, regardless of if it was after a link to mine or somebody else's code... I can't help but feel like the "code reuse" lightbulb shines rather dim for them.

Posted: Apr 08 2003, 12:44 PM by Andy Smith | with 3 comment(s)
Filed under:

Comments

Travis said:

Efficiency aggrees with you. Anything to get my job done faster is ok in my book.

The only reason I would not want to use someone else's code would be educational, to fully understand how and why something works.

Also it might have something todo with "pride". :-)
# April 8, 2003 3:26 PM

George said:

This could be a mind-set problem with the Microsoft/.NET camp. From what I've seen, Java developers have no such reservations. In the "101 Reason Java Is Better Than .NET" discussion, the widespread availability of third-party, aka open-source, code was listed as a major benefit of Java. Since I'm seeing a lot more sharing of code in the .NET space, this "problem" may not be around much longer.
# April 8, 2003 6:10 PM

Jonathan said:

I'd call it less of a pride issue, more of a Trust issue. Especially if you've been in the VB world a while rather than the ASP world. Vb custom controls in the old days used to be notorious for having undocumented oddities that you could never really debug because you'd hit the "black box" of the pre-compiled code. Programmers have long memories. ;)
# July 5, 2004 5:03 PM
Leave a Comment

(required) 

(required) 

(optional)

(required)