I don't think so.
Sure, most code is boilerplate, except for that one thing, and that one thing can be anywhere. For example, let's say you want to write a function that returns the checksum of a bunch of data. That's a very common thing to do, there are plenty of libraries that do that, and I have seen the CRC32 lookup table in many places, sometimes I am the one who put it there.
Now, why rewrite such a function?
- Ignore some part of the message
- Use different constants
- Fetch data in a special way (i.e. not a file or memory buffer)
- Have some kind of a progress meter
- The library you may want to use is not available (can be for technical, legal or policy reasons)
- Some in-loop operation is needed (ex: byte swapping)
- Have a specific termination condition (ex: end-of-message marker)
- And many others, including combinations of the above
If you ignore all these points and only see the generic checksum function, yes, it is boilerplate and can be factorized. But these special cases are the reason why it may not be the case, and the reason why there are so many coding jobs.
It is also the reason why we don't have real (Lv5) self driving cars yet, why there are pilots in the cockpit, why MS Office and the like have so many "useless" features, why so many attempts to make software cleaner and simpler fail, etc...
Sure, most code is boilerplate, except for that one thing, and that one thing can be anywhere. For example, let's say you want to write a function that returns the checksum of a bunch of data. That's a very common thing to do, there are plenty of libraries that do that, and I have seen the CRC32 lookup table in many places, sometimes I am the one who put it there.
Now, why rewrite such a function?
- Ignore some part of the message
- Use different constants
- Fetch data in a special way (i.e. not a file or memory buffer)
- Have some kind of a progress meter
- The library you may want to use is not available (can be for technical, legal or policy reasons)
- Some in-loop operation is needed (ex: byte swapping)
- Have a specific termination condition (ex: end-of-message marker)
- And many others, including combinations of the above
If you ignore all these points and only see the generic checksum function, yes, it is boilerplate and can be factorized. But these special cases are the reason why it may not be the case, and the reason why there are so many coding jobs.
It is also the reason why we don't have real (Lv5) self driving cars yet, why there are pilots in the cockpit, why MS Office and the like have so many "useless" features, why so many attempts to make software cleaner and simpler fail, etc...