Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
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From: gw@hplb.hpl.hp.com (Gunther Walther)
Subject: Re: Help spread re-use of Smalltalk?
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Date: Wed, 28 Jun 1995 11:03:44 GMT
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Susan B. Macchia (74454.3256@CompuServe.COM) wrote:
: [previous content ommitted]
: >>only taking a few extra minutes for a very large return!
: >
: >I agree with the fact that a lot of developers in whatever
: >language do not bother to write re-usable code.  However, 
: >I think the issue could be a political one rather than 
: >a technical one.
: >
: >When a developer writes re-usable code, the quantity of his 
: >code won't be as high as the ones that are cranking out
: >non-reusable codes.  The developers that are writting 

: I agree that this is probably the case sometimes.  I have also 
: found that the organization has to see re-use has part of their 
: mode of operation, otherwise, it just doesn't happen.  Further, 
: there are times when there is a deadline and re-use goes out the 
: window.

Reuse and the contributions people make when reusing code is
difficult to measure. One aspect is that code becomes more
reusable the more it gets reused. The person who is reusing
it the first time often has to put in a lot of work to
insulate the code from its original context and smooth some
edges. Underlying assumptions of the original programmer
surface and have to be dealt with. Code has to be generalized,
documentation has to be written. 

This is serious work and it is very tempting to take shortcuts.
After all, it is not the primary objective of the re-user to
write reusable code. The primary reason for the decision to
reuse the code was often that it would allow the developer to
focus on other, more important tasks.

Maybe one reason why we don't see the reuse that we would like
to see is that we don't appreciate the work the first re-users
are doing to allow subsequent users simple and cost effective
reuse.

gunther
	- code is reusable after being reused
	- code is portable after being ported

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