Pejorative for the production of highly repetitive computer programming code, as produced by copy and paste operations
Also known as copy and paste programming
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Copy-and-paste programming, sometimes referred to as just pasting, is the production of highly repetitive computer programming code, as produced by copy and paste operations. It is primarily a pejorative term; those who use the term are often implying a lack of programming competence and ability to create abstractions. It may also be the result of technology limitations as subroutines or libraries would normally be used instead. However, there are occasions when copy-and-paste programming is considered acceptable or necessary, such as for boilerplate, loop unrolling, languages with limited metaprogramming facilities, or certain programming idioms, and it is supported by some source code editors in the form of snippets.