Comments on: Code search engine Krugle looks promising http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/04/05/code-search-engine-krugle-looks-promising/ This can all be made better. Ready? Begin. Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:39:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Ken Krugler http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/04/05/code-search-engine-krugle-looks-promising/comment-page-1/#comment-2951 Ken Krugler Sun, 16 Apr 2006 14:42:01 +0000 http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/04/05/code-search-engine-krugle-looks-promising/#comment-2951 Hi Chris & Neil, Thanks for the post and discussion. A few thoughts on the "copying code" topic... 1. I agree with Neil that for most situations, if you're thinking about copying code, then what you really want to be doing is grabbing a component/library/application. Something where the external (public) API has had a modicum of design, testing, validation. Versus the icky (that's a technical term) stuff you usually find when you look under the covers. But you still need to be able to find the component/library/app, evaluate it before investing time in downloading/trying/integrating, peruse the related newsgroups & bug reports, etc. 2. There are cases where copying snippets works - for example, two days ago I needed some code that turned a DOM object back into text. The Apache XML project had a file with the pieces I needed. I think that over time the size of a useful, reusable "chunk" will continue to shrink. A Long Time Ago when people talked about OSS they often meant Linux. Now many of the 150K+ projects out there are much smaller in size & scope. And with web service APIs the level of reuse is approaching the API level. 3. Often where I use search is to find examples of how to do something - cases where I'm using an API (at the level of language, SDK, component, library, whatever) and it's not working right, darn it. So in this case I don't care about whether it's a component or not, I just want to find code doing something interesting that I can look at. I blogged about this previously, but a friend (Joe Ternasky) had an interesting take on the MOSS (measure of software similarity) tool. Currently it's used to detect (and punish) plagarism, but in the future he notes that students who don't reuse available open source code should get penalized :) Hi Chris & Neil,

Thanks for the post and discussion. A few thoughts on the “copying code” topic…

1. I agree with Neil that for most situations, if you’re thinking about copying code, then what you really want to be doing is grabbing a component/library/application. Something where the external (public) API has had a modicum of design, testing, validation. Versus the icky (that’s a technical term) stuff you usually find when you look under the covers.

But you still need to be able to find the component/library/app, evaluate it before investing time in downloading/trying/integrating, peruse the related newsgroups & bug reports, etc.

2. There are cases where copying snippets works - for example, two days ago I needed some code that turned a DOM object back into text. The Apache XML project had a file with the pieces I needed.

I think that over time the size of a useful, reusable “chunk” will continue to shrink. A Long Time Ago when people talked about OSS they often meant Linux. Now many of the 150K+ projects out there are much smaller in size & scope. And with web service APIs the level of reuse is approaching the API level.

3. Often where I use search is to find examples of how to do something - cases where I’m using an API (at the level of language, SDK, component, library, whatever) and it’s not working right, darn it. So in this case I don’t care about whether it’s a component or not, I just want to find code doing something interesting that I can look at.

I blogged about this previously, but a friend (Joe Ternasky) had an interesting take on the MOSS (measure of software similarity) tool. Currently it’s used to detect (and punish) plagarism, but in the future he notes that students who don’t reuse available open source code should get penalized :)

]]> By: Neil Drumm http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/04/05/code-search-engine-krugle-looks-promising/comment-page-1/#comment-2899 Neil Drumm Tue, 11 Apr 2006 22:08:48 +0000 http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/04/05/code-search-engine-krugle-looks-promising/#comment-2899 Oh and code sharing does take place, its called libraries, frameworks, APIs, etc. No searching required, just good documentation or willingness to tolerate bad documentation. Oh and code sharing does take place, its called libraries, frameworks, APIs, etc. No searching required, just good documentation or willingness to tolerate bad documentation.

]]> By: FactoryJoe http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/04/05/code-search-engine-krugle-looks-promising/comment-page-1/#comment-2898 FactoryJoe Tue, 11 Apr 2006 20:56:29 +0000 http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/04/05/code-search-engine-krugle-looks-promising/#comment-2898 Ok, I'll buy that response for a dollar. ;) Ok, I’ll buy that response for a dollar. ;)

]]> By: Neil Drumm http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/04/05/code-search-engine-krugle-looks-promising/comment-page-1/#comment-2897 Neil Drumm Tue, 11 Apr 2006 19:52:12 +0000 http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/04/05/code-search-engine-krugle-looks-promising/#comment-2897 Right, plenty of elbow grease will gt it done. Things can go together if you want them to, but they don't fit out of the box. And searching won't change shapes of things, jsut make them easier to find. Right, plenty of elbow grease will gt it done. Things can go together if you want them to, but they don’t fit out of the box. And searching won’t change shapes of things, jsut make them easier to find.

]]> By: FactoryJoe http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/04/05/code-search-engine-krugle-looks-promising/comment-page-1/#comment-2895 FactoryJoe Tue, 11 Apr 2006 17:59:37 +0000 http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/04/05/code-search-engine-krugle-looks-promising/#comment-2895 Oh right, "if it wasn't written here, it's no good". For all the effort that's gone into reinventing standards practices, I'd have to disagree. Turn the square peg 90 degrees and you'll realize that you're holding a cylindar. It's all a matter of practice, perspective and elbow grease. Oh right, “if it wasn’t written here, it’s no good”. For all the effort that’s gone into reinventing standards practices, I’d have to disagree. Turn the square peg 90 degrees and you’ll realize that you’re holding a cylindar.

It’s all a matter of practice, perspective and elbow grease.

]]> By: Neil Drumm http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/04/05/code-search-engine-krugle-looks-promising/comment-page-1/#comment-2894 Neil Drumm Tue, 11 Apr 2006 17:43:32 +0000 http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/04/05/code-search-engine-krugle-looks-promising/#comment-2894 Grabbing code from elsewhere and putting it in your project is like putting the proverbial square peg in the round hole. Grabbing code from elsewhere and putting it in your project is like putting the proverbial square peg in the round hole.

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