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> how much of your code do you actually fully understand vs how much is just copied from somewhere?

100% is fully understood. Every single line. A very small percentage is copied from somewhere (usually adapted in some way), but even then: I understand every single line. And I expect the same of everyone on my team. If I'm doing a code review and someone says "I don't know; I found this code online" it does not go over well. I might have them delete all the pasted code and re-write it with me. If they keep pasting in code they don't understand, I may remove them from my projects.

I'm obviously a lot less strict about understanding libraries we import (although it's still important to develop a strong understanding of what they do, and their limitations, over time). The main difference is that someone else is supporting that code, while we have to support code that we pasted from "somewhere online".




Well as I said I don’t have enterprise experience but from what I see, all the stuff that is not 100% creativity of a new process seems to be tying libraries together.

I’m learning spring because my company is Java heavy and I’m hoping to do a lateral move there. The whole thing is an arbitrary rule set that the library writers agreed upon. Yes there are many concepts of OOP involved but I watch tutorials and the guy says “you need to write auth.userDetailsService and I can only think “yeah, great but how did you get to that conclusion? Where is the hidden recipe book I’m not seeing? How was I supposed to figure that out if I wasn’t following this tutorial?”


So "your code" only means the stuff you typed in personally? None of the libraries you use, the operating system facilities, the runtimes or compilers, none of that is "yours"? So when it breaks or does something you don't understand, then what? File a bug report, call your work "blocked", and go home for the day?


Yes, "my code" means the code I am responsible for, which includes the rare instances where I copy and paste from the internet. What does "your code" mean to you, if not that?

Correct, the libraries and compilers I use are not "my code". If there is a bug in some library method, I simply don't call that method and do something else instead. This may sometimes mean throwing the library away. Sometimes I will submit a bug report, if the process isn't awful (but it usually is).

I guess I don't understand why any of this is surprising to you?




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