From: Peter Szinek <peter@...>
Date: 2006-04-19T00:53:20+09:00
Subject: Re: Google Summer of Code -- It's back

Jake McArthur wrote:
>> [...] ideas [...]
> 
> I was struck with an idea yesterday that could theoretically be really
> nice for Ruby developers. I'm sure most of us are aware of the idea of
> keeping code DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself), and I think most people that
> know about it don't have too much of a problem with following it.
> Another idea that programmers follow, not as well, is to not reinvent
> the wheel, which for the sake of the rest of this e-mail I will refer to
> as DROP (Don't Repeat Other People).
> 
> My idea is to create an open source code repository, web site, and set
> of tools designed to help people to automate the process of factoring
> code out of their projects which they can all share. First, it helps
> them to find instances of code that need to be DRYed or DROPed by
> comparing lines of code across the entire code base in the repository
> and pointing out lines that are similar to things that have already been
> done before. If the programmer finds things within his program which he
> repeated, then it should be a simple a matter of factoring out to
> another function or class within his code to DRY it. If he finds that
> somebody else has similar code, he can factor it out into a separate
> "project" in the repository to DROP it. People with similar code in the
> repository are notified so that they can update their individual
> projects accordingly if they desire to do so.
> 
> Using code that has been factored out into these external projects
> should be both easy to integrate and easy to keep up to date in each
> project. Though I'm not quite sure of the mechanics of how that would be
> done yet, I'm envisioning a script programmers can run that will bring
> all functions and classes they are using from external projects up to
> date in their own program. As it does this, it runs all the programmer's
> tests to make sure that it doesn't break something and pulls back to a
> previous revision if necessary. (As such, it would practically be a
> requirement that all code that takes advantage of this be unit tested.)
> This would also provide the benefit that factored out projects can be
> edited by anyone, like a wiki, without screwing everything up; any time
> something gets messed up or is incompatible with some projects, somebody
> will see when they try to update and can fix it themselves.
> 
> The web site would show the projects in the repository, provide a method
> of discussion around the various bits of code, and give downloads and
> instructions for using the resource for yourself.
> 
> My hope is that this would be a tool that could speed up development,
> simplify and stabilize Ruby programs, and bring a collaborative
> atmosphere even to individual projects.
Hello Jake,

Wow what a great idea. BTW. do you know the online python-cookbook?

http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Python/Cookbook/

It is a small subset of the possible results of the implementation of
the idea you describe here, of course your idea is much-much more than
this, since python cookbook is just a set of manually added code snippets.

If you decide to implement DROP, be sure to put up a page/wiki/mailing
list something so we can track your progress and send some ideas (if you
don't mind ;-)

Cheers,
Peter