Good code never dies
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Good source code on a robust, open-source platform is why software will continue to "eat the world."
While developing a Java configuration Web service for our technical cloud broker software, Axon Cloud Channel, I needed some code to execute an external process from within my Java code, and remembered that I had already developed similar code for an article I wrote way back in December of 2000 (yes, 13 years ago) entitled, “When Runtime.exec() won’t.”
The article proved to be popular, as the Java pitfall it uncovered had tripped up many programmers using the built-in Java class for the first time. Additionally, in that article I introduced and provided the source code for a class called “StreamGobbler” that “gobbled,” or continuously read, an input, output or error stream from the external process.
Besides the catchy name, that simple Java class cleanly solved one problem when using the Java Runtime.exec() method. Furthermore, the class was meant only to demonstrate the solution and left several advanced features for others to implement. When Googling for that code from the article, I was shocked to see 15,800 hits for it and delighted to discover that the code had proliferated, been extended, reused and refined in hundreds of projects. My humble baby “StreamGobbler” had grown up and taken on a life of its own!
Well-known open source repositories like Apache, GitHub and Google Code had StreamGobbler variants as part of their reusable libraries. Well-known question-and-answer sites like Stack Overflow, Yahoo Groups and the Java Ranch answered multiple questions on it. And finally, well-known institutions and companies such as Stanford University, Software AG and Hewlett-Packard had included the code, or a derivative, in their projects. All of this begs the question – why would this code proliferate? And furthermore, what are the ramifications of that?
This small case study on the proliferation of 13-year-old source code is one proof point for “Why Software is Eating the World” as posited by Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape. While his article was for laypersons in the business community, I would like to focus on the question from the developer’s perspective and offer three reasons why software will continue to “eat the world:”
- Good source code has longevity. Good source code on a robust, well-supported platform (or platforms) has a long shelf life – decades or more. For example, the Java Platform was released by Sun Microsystems in 1995 and is still growing strong and evolving today.
- The power of open-source software. Open source software, where the source code is available to the public for reuse, including modification, has been a global boon for innovation and improving the overall state of technological progress. Organizations like the Apache Software Foundation are heroes in my book. I have been an avid fan, supporter and contributor to open source for my entire career, and all source code from my technical books is available on my website.
- Source code maturity should be the gold standard. The key mark of good software is that it fulfills its function, over time, robustly and reliably. To achieve that end, good source code is mature source code. My measures for source code maturity are the following:
- It is being used in a production environment.
- It has aged in that environment and therefore has been executed by end-users.
- It has been tested in terms of coverage and corner cases.
- It has been tested via automated regression tests.
The most mature code will have fulfilled all of the above and run flawlessly under those constraints for the longest time. How mature is your code?
Fortunately, the next wave of cloud-based applications will leverage and increase these positive trends of source code longevity, openness and maturity.
And speaking of cloud computing, I am nearing the completion of my next book, which is on cloud computing. If you are an IT manager or developer interested in formally reviewing the book, please contact me via email or from this website.