SOURCE: DREAM-IN-CODE

As I've had the opportunity to interview developers for various positions over the years, I've noticed there are two distinct types of "programmers". Those that can actually program from scratch in an IDE/editor (or on a white board as we ask them to do in interviews), and those that can Google and press Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V very effectively.

With the explosion of Q&A sites focusing on providing quick and ready to copy and paste answers and code, the Copy & Paste Programmer is alive and well.

Unfortunately for the first group of developers who can actually write code and don't spend all their days trying to make someone elses code work, the Copy & Paste Programmer has created quite a problem. Taking away jobs, perpetuating a culture of unmaintainable, and undocumented code that the Copy & Paste Programmer never understood to begin with.

At Dream.In.Code, we're often criticized for asking members to put forth a little effort and try to actually learn a little and understand what it is they are doing. This is apparently too much to ask for the countless lazy students and young professionals that would rather be handed 100 lines of code they can pass off as their own than spend a few extra minutes learning how to actually solve a problem. What's sad is, this used to be limited to academic settings, but as those individuals graduate and enter the work force, we're seeing more and more questions from "professionals" who need someone to write their code for them. This is disgusting, and it's being supported by other programmers who will gladly do their work for them.

While there is nothing wrong with doing some research and finding a snippet or two to help you complete an application, if you find yourself assembling programs entirely from code copied from forums, Q&A sites, etc. You are a Copy & Paste Programmer and you are not only hurting yourself, but you're hurting your entire industry.

Dream.In.Code does not and will not support a culture in which programmers can not write code from scratch or complete basic troubleshooting and debugging. This is why we encourage discussion, learning, and a good faith effort from everyone receiving help. It may not be the easy or popular thing to do, but for those genuinely interested in having a successful career as a programmer, it's the right thing to do.

This is just an advice, I hope it helps put d newbies in the right path.

- SAFE

I beg to differ, albeit slightly, in the sense that I agree with you with respect to the lazy ones.

Here is how I approach a problem:
1) Attempt doing it on my own
2) If I spend more than 2 or 3 hours on #1, I google for it
3) If I find an answer to #2, I grab the code, **make sure I understand what it is doing**, then implement.

From some of the many issues that are brought to the forum, I can easily deduce that the problem isn't per se that they can't find a solution but that they copied and pasted, without full understanding of what they are copying and pasting. Besides, if any one has been doing this for a while, there are certain tasks that should be templatized on our hard drives somewhere, ready for copying and pasting upon request.

When I conduct interviews, I undertake the same approach: I first ask verbal questions to see how you think then I make you write some code on paper, to see how you code and if the code is efficiently written.

Bottomline, people shouldn't whine about your approach. In the end, it makes one a better and disciplined programmer.

Copy and Paste programmer are those who copy and paste and have no idea what the code is,so you copying from Google doesn't make you one,if not then we should all stop using frameworks since its almost the same message,we read people's code understand their reason for adopting certain coding and styles and all,thanx to firebug i read Jquery codes and try to convert them to Dojo Framework

But of course - we all copy and paste codes - but those of us that are true professionals study those codes we copy
and sometimes improve on them self.

But the pure copy and paste programmers mix things up, and develop websites that are unscalable. Well, i am happy
about one thing though - the copy and paste programmers constitute like over 50% of my own clients
- They usually pay me to clear things up for them when it gets complicated

Guy, there's no point re-inventing the wheel if u know the principles that make it work and you have the design (provided its not patented or copyrighted).
I can code almost anything i have ever copied but where's the time?

Why re-invent CodeIgniter because of 150k or re-invent jquery because of 100k?

There's absolutely no problem with copy and paste if it works for you. Some people copy and paste to save time, after-all, Ubuntu, Suse or Fedora did not invent Linux and Seun did not program nairaland from scratch (SMF).

I'm a big-time fan of google. I see if anyone has done it b4 me and i pick up from there.

@lojik, you said one very valid point: you can code almost anything you have ever copied. The same thing goes for me and the poster as well as others.

But the people that we tag in the cloud of "copy pasters" cannot code jack - and do not even understand the code they copy - they just know it works.

The 21st century is for the innovators and and for the inventors, why will i waste my time writing code from scratch when i can get codes somewhere else and improve on it. even multinationals like google, microsoft etc copy and improve their services.

Dont waste your time writing codes from scratch those are the school of thought of our educational system where they will be teaching students useless codes that are not relevance for to todays marketplace.

look at facebook, myspace, twitter they just copy themselves and add creativity to make each other different, the core service of this website is social networking

either you write code from scratch or copying somebody else code and improve on it the most important thing is result.

Whats the need to crack your brain over a solved problem?
The OP belongs to a bygone age where only a few people shared knowledge. The bubble burst with the open source revolution.

To whom it may concern:

The issue isn't over literal copy and paste but copy and paste without understanding. In other words, you google for something (nothing wrong with that), copy and paste (most likely because you are in a crunch), the code doesn't behave the way you expected or doesn't yield the desired results. You then are in a bind because not only is the code not working but you don't understand why and most likely, you have to deliver fast.

You keep tweaking and then like magic, "d ting come work small" in that it does what you want it to do at that particular time but, at some point the code meets a condition you hadn't envisioned (cos you didnt understand the code) and then the client calls you to fix the stuff but again you can't because you didn't understand it in the first place. Next thing you know, you are giving big grammar to ward off doing it. The "smart" ones at this point either google for another piece of code which again they don't fully understand or they come to nairaland seeking an answer and not getting one, wonder why no one is responding.

Phew! What a story

*dhtml:

@lojik, you said one very valid point:  you can code almost anything you have ever copied. The same thing goes for me and the poster as well as others.

But the people that we tag in the cloud of "copy pasters" cannot code jack - and do not even understand the code they copy - they just know it works.

you got the message  bro.

@IBEXY, bygone age? chei i don suffer today.

@trimwis, Copy and paste is not a crime if you understand the code.

yawa-ti-de:

To whom it may concern:

The issue isn't over literal copy and paste but copy and paste without understanding. In other words, you google for something (nothing wrong with that), copy and paste (most likely because you are in a crunch), the code doesn't behave the way you expected or doesn't yield the desired results. You then are in a bind because not only is the code not working but you don't understand why and most likely, you have to deliver fast.

You keep tweaking and then like magic, "d ting come work small" in that it does what you want it to do at that particular time but, at some point the code meets a condition you hadn't envisioned (cos you didnt understand the code) and then the client calls you to fix the stuff but again you can't because you didn't understand it in the first place. Next thing you know, you are giving big grammar to ward off doing it. The "smart" ones at this point either google for another piece of code which again they don't fully understand or they come to nairaland seeking an answer and not getting one, wonder why no one is responding.

Phew! What a story

you deserve a kiss for this, mmmuaaaaah

- SAFE

Same thinggy i was trying to say: now yawa has succeeded in rewriting it in singlishiness - for those that dont habla espanol-english.
- Very interesting comments