Self Coding VS Code Generators

Krak

I am curious as to what your opinions are. When creating an app what do you think is best, self coding it all, or using a generator to get the code you need (something like POG)?

I can see how self coding might be better, you know exactly what is there and where it is at and what it is doing (or at least whats its suppose to do), and it cuts down on unnecessary/bloat code. But then again using generated code, or a library downloaded from somewhere cuts coding time dramatically, and usually you get code that works pretty much straight out of "the box", with little or no errors.

Which would you use and why?

WallPhone

I had bad experiences with code generated by Visual Studio 6.0, so I generally try to avoid it.

Developed a tracking system in record time and I used PEAR libraries to display data in a table, but when a request came in to do something that should have been simple, (ordering by multiple columns) the library required a different method of binding to data--one that required completely rewriting an interface to the database with an abstraction layer instead of raw SQL.

The queries were very complex (13-16 lines of SQL joining 6-8 tables for the main data display), so natrually I didin't want to rewrite them. It was much easier just to modify the original query.

I don't regret using the library, it saved very much time that would have been spent on solving a boring problem, and they let me focus on the more interesting problems in the project.

lech

Depends on the project, if it's something small and generally trivial at best, self-coding it usually isn't a problem. Until that small project eventually starts growing exponentially into something bigger then relying on barrowed bits and pieces becomes part of the challenge. However, in the end, it all becomes self coding because if you're a thorough coder, you're always going into the barrowed bits and rewriting things to suit your own project. Eventually, those barrowed bits slowly become your own after so much has been rewritten and optimized for your project. While I don't object to barrowed and generated code, I do like to see how it's working, what it's doing and what I can do to change it to suit the needs of my own projects. The best of both worlds is when you can generate the most generic piece of code to encompass any project after the one it was intended for.