Question

I recently joined a project which basically uses java as the programming language. I observed that almost 80 % of the code for one particular service was generated using hand written tools. The input for the tools were either XML or an Excel sheet. When I asked the senior members of the project, they answered that it reduces coding error and helps in documentation. But I was wondering if there is any drawback as most of the code is generated and very less is written manually?

Answer 1

You don’t say what the nature of the service is, but it is often the case that a lot of code must “match up” with each other, or with other things like database tables. Many companies use various tools to automatically generate code or other things (like database schemas) from one central map of the entity relationship.

For instance, Hibernate is a tool that helps map Java classes to database schemas. There are various tools for creating an ORM (Object Relationship Model) and generating code from it. Many classes are 80% or more cookie-cutter getters/setters/constructors.

Whether it’s worth it or not, or a good idea, is determined by

• how good is your tools and the output they create
• How much customization will they need afterwards
• How you handle changes to the model. ie if model changes force you to overwrite the source files with regenerated code which will lose any additions or customizations made since the last regeneration, then you can end up doing a lot of rework.