Size does matter

Why we choose OSCommerce or Joomla or WordPress to start any project? One of the reasons is the plethora of features, they have. These features are the best part of these scripts and ultimately these are the major pitfalls of these systems. Many times One would never want ALL those features but have to have them in the package.

What’s the big deal

These EXTRA and unwanted features always hinder your development, enhancement and working. EXTRA features means EXTRA lines of code and EXTRA vulnerabilities and bugs in the code.

What can be done ?

There should be some way to opt for the features you want to have. Having more options is good.

We have the example of JQuery. JQuery UI has a package builder where you can select which features you want to have in your packege. http://ui.jquery.com/download_builder/

Are we promoting Bad Code???

How many  times, have you started your project from a script that you think is not beautifully coded ?

This has became a common practice to use some open source module to start your project with. apart from popular (and good ) ones like WordPress and Joomla there exist many other like auto shop scripts, jewelery shop scripts, community site scripts or video sharing scripts. Most of the times these scripts are not good enough to be used by hundreds of websites.

Are these scripts useful

Not always. These scripts generally provide basic and default functionality. Customizing such scripts always take longer as these scripts are not so standard complaint and one has to learn some extra (and unnecessary) in the process of modifying them . Integrating few extra features in these scripts may take longer than developing the whole project from the scratch.

So do I really promoting bad code?

If you opt for an script by just exploring the features it provide and not by the coding standards it follows than definitely YES. You are supporting and sponsoring it.

Moral of the story

Don’t risk Quality of Code for Code Reusability.