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It was 1999. I was just starting my first real job as a programmer for a major insurance company. We were working on code that would screen scrape legacy mainframe data output and convert it to a web-based UI. REALLY stupid project approach I had no input on. I happened to find a programmer in Germany who had released his code in the public domain that would help with making a certain conversion task easier. I downloaded his code and put it to work.

During a code review, a programmer who was probably about 60 asked me where I got the code and what it was doing. I didn't even get to the part about what it was doing because he made fun of me so badly, in a fake German accent in front of a room full of non-programmers, for using code that today is no big deal due to the prevalence of open source. I just clammed up in humiliation because he got everyone laughing at me. His philosophy was if we didn't buy it or write it ourselves, we had no business using it.

I guess I was just ahead of my time?

Comments
  • 12
    No, you did what any good programmer would do, no need to think about these kind of people, they are just releasing stress of being huge pussy.
  • 4
    You definitely did the right thing here and you did what any good dev would do - reuse code, even if it isn't your own.

    As for the asshat who made fun of you, there is a such a thing as 'not invented here syndrome' that still plagues the development world today. Why write a small utility when someone else has already done it and it's available to you?
  • 3
    The whole fucking goal of programming and automation in general is offloading repetitive tasks. Why the fuck would we make the task itself repetitive?

    You correct + win.
    Them fail + stupid.

    Hope you have more confidence and hold your ground now. Better yet work with decent people.
  • 3
    I was 2 years old
  • 1
    @simpleJack and yet no doubt more insightful than his "superior". I was 15 so at least not in diapers anymore 😁. 99 is longer ago than I realized
  • 1
    No need to reinvent the weel...
    Unfortunately your coworker way of thinking is still very present in companies...
    Mine for example don't use open source apps, except for Libre office (unless the user needs to use productivity apps, then he gets ms office)...
    So... It's better to use code that won't go well over time (c# as back-end, apsx as front-end) and pay extras... Because devs here think the same way....
    I can't even talk about php, Linux or stuff like that in front of them...
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