

Ask HN: Is all code worth sharing? - jfe

I personally believe that unless your code offers one or more of the following, you should keep it to yourself:<p>- a novel experience<p>- a solution to a previously unsolved problem<p>- a faster or smaller solution to a solved problem<p>What&#x27;s your opinion?
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zwiteof
Your requirements are from the perspective of people who view/use the code.
I'd argue there are many benefits for the coder by releasing code including
getting feedback from the community on aspects that could be improved or
changed. This learning aspect is important as well

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jfe
that may be true, but is it worth the time of the community to critique code
that offers them nothing in return?

one might argue that the decision as to whether code is worth reviewing is up
to the individual, and i would agree. but i would also argue that it's the
responsibility of the author to decide whether or not the submission of that
code in a public forum will generate more light or more heat, and filter such
submissions accordingly.

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kohanz
How would you expect to achieve any of the things on your list _prior_ to
sharing the code with others, so that people can collaborate? You're basically
implying that none of the good stuff happens after the code goes public.

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cbhl
I strongly disagree. For the types of code you mention we already have avenues
for this -- academic papers and publications and libraries.

Publishing code, say, in a GitHub profile, can serve other purposes though.
Sometimes you're applying for a job and the employer just wants to assess that
you can write syntactically valid, human-readable, not-too-terrible code and
use source control. For this, I'm not too terribly concerned about whether
this is the millionth time solving the problem, so much as I am about
excluding people who aren't ready to be interviewed by a bona fide developer.

