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I've been on StackOverflow for some time, but relatively new to Programmers. I have a legitimate (hehe!) question for other "senior" software engineers regarding the desirability of in-house utility libraries, pros and cons of reuse vs. mindlessly wrapping of standard APIs, noob-friendliness of such code vs. utility gained, etc.

Is this an acceptable topic on Programmers? Is it too opinion based?

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  • This is a question frequently debated and discussed in the professional world, and I'd love to see a canonical answer to it outlining what kind of questions you should ask yourself when making such a decision, and what factors to consider. I think this may be the kind of question that would only work if someone can help craft a great answer to it. – Rachel Mar 24 '15 at 15:33
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    At the moment, you haven't provided enough details about your proposed question for the community to be able to provide you with guidance on topicality. Please add more details regarding the question itself. In general, "pros & cons" questions often end up too broad and are closed as such. And there's a hint of "primarily opinion based" in the way you've phrased the question so far. "Desirability" is sign of opinion based, but you cite specific metrics that you want to examine so perhaps not overly opinion based. – user53019 Mar 24 '15 at 15:41
  • ...FWIW, prior to asking I would consider studying previous questions, eg When is it more productive to build your own framework than to use an existing one? and those linked to it – gnat Mar 24 '15 at 15:44
  • Thanks, most of what I was looking for is covered in the existing references. I still have a specific question regarding the wrapping of standard APIs to circumvent their verbosity. I'll see if I can find any existing questions on that. – Cornel Masson Mar 25 '15 at 7:47
  • Found one where I'll contribute: Is wrapping third-party API calls a design smell? – Cornel Masson Mar 25 '15 at 8:11

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