14 lines
749 B
Plaintext
14 lines
749 B
Plaintext
case and paste
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n. [from cut and paste ] The addition of a new feature to an existing system
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by selecting the code from an existing feature and pasting it in with minor
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changes. Common in telephony circles because most operations in a telephone
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switch are selected using case statements. Leads to software bloat. In some
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circles of EMACS users this is called programming by Meta-W , because Meta-W
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is the EMACS command for copying a block of text to a kill buffer in
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preparation to pasting it in elsewhere. The term is condescending, implying
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that the programmer is acting mindlessly rather than thinking carefully
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about what is required to integrate the code for two similar cases. At DEC
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(now HP), this is sometimes called clone-and-hack coding.
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