I've been writing software for a relatively short period of time. During that period, I've been striving to increase my productivity and code quality by reading as much as I can, and coding as much as I can. I'm now faced with a bit of a paradox.

A fundamental principal of coding (which is applied to almost any other discipline) is "why re-invent the wheel?". In other words, why re-write a piece of code that's already been writen and tested, and which is available for free? By re-using this code, you avoid wasting time on designing, implementing, testing and debugging the component, thus increasing productivity and quality.

Another fundamental principal of engineering and science is "know your fundamentals". A prof of mine once told the class that 80% of engineering problems can be solved with first-year principles.

Here's the problem. If the most effective method of improving your coding skills is to code, and the most effective way to increase productivity and software quality is to re-use code (i.e. not write it yourself), then can you improve skill and maintain productivity? Is it possible to learn coding fundamentals without coding? Is general knowledge of an algorithm or data structure (such as a linked list) enough to write quality code, or does a developer need to know the implementation details of each algorithm and data structure?

Phemur

In reply to Code re-use: productivity gains vs. skill deprecation by Phemur

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