Paul Mukherjee

Copy-paste coding is a kind of misguided code reuse. You have a problem to solve and you see a similar problem and its solution in your existing body of code. So you copy and paste the solution, and make the necessary modifications so that the solution matches your current problem. Here's an example to make this more concrete: you've written a system that allows departments in your organization to analyze their productivity; each department has its own ideas about what it wants, so each has its own domain logic. The sales department wants to be able to export data from the system into a planning tool. After a few months in production, the personnel department spies this particular feature and says they would like it as well. No problem, says your boss; we already have that functionality in the system so we can make it available to you in the next maintenance release.... (more)

Java Developer's Journal: A Blueprint For Developing Language Tools

Language tools such as compilers, interpreters, and code generators are a critical part of the software development landscape. Any software project will include several procured tools and very likely several in-house tools. Experience shows that the only guarantee with such tools is change: the underlying language may change due to improvements or extensions and the functionality provided by the tool expands, driven by user-requested features and the need to stay in front of the competition. The specific changes that will be made are rarely known at the outset, but change is comi... (more)