in reply to Reactionary Coding—One-Shot Programs

I would say that if you have a problem that comes up as a one-off-type problem, code a one-off-type solution. But, save that solution somewhere. Maybe, you play with it and hack it into a more general solution. Maybe not. But, you save it in your personal scripts directory with some notes as to what it was used for.

Six months later, someone will come up and ask for a slight modification. Then, when there's two times you want to run it, make it a generic mini-application.

Once is a one-off ... twice is a mini-app ... three times is a solution. :-)

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Re2: Reactionary Coding—One-Shot Programs
by John M. Dlugosz (Monsignor) on Jun 13, 2001 at 23:21 UTC
    I agree. It might get "reused" in that having done that before I can write another similar one real quick. Or, if it's very similar, I can dig up the script and edit it, changing the names and such. Just because it's specialized doesn't mean it has to be bad code. So source and dest names, etc. can be noted as constants at the top of the script, and assumptions can be documented as comments.

    —John

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