The addition of a new feature to an existing
system by selecting the code from an existing feature and pasting it in
with minor changes. Common in telephony circles because most operations in
a telephone switch are selected using case
statements. Leads to software bloat.
In some circles of EMACS users this is called ‘programming by
Meta-W’, because Meta-W is the EMACS command for copying a block of
text to a kill buffer in preparation to pasting it in elsewhere. The term
is condescending, implying that the programmer is acting mindlessly rather
than thinking carefully about what is required to integrate the code for
two similar cases.
At DEC (now HP), this is sometimes called
clone-and-hack coding.
