Check the documentation for a library, copy&paste the interface call, fill in the blanks.
Pick the best algorithm for the case at hand, copy&paste, change a few variable names.
Get out your snippets archive, copy&paste the one you need.
Write some boilerplate, copy&paste over and over, then fill in the blanks.
Look up how someone else solved your problem, replicate it in a way that doesn't look like copy&paste.
Once in a blue moon, come up against an actually novel problem, spend some days figuring out the best way to solve it... then copy&paste the solution back into the project.

Doesn't matter what you're working on, in the end it's mostly copy&paste 😂

[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I work on compilers (we can't/don't even have access to the C++ standard library in my case)... Most of the time, Google can't help me ⚰️😅

It was definitely a bit more copy and paste when I was working on web applications... But even then, most of the code I was writing was fairly novel / more application and database architecture problems than trying tying libraries together.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

What are databases, other than glorified MS Access (¹)? 😜

But seriously, if you're working on compilers, then your "target users" are way different than the average thing: you have actual problems to solve, and can stick to the CLI.

Most copy&paste begins the closer to a GUI you get. Modern web interfaces, have also become a string of libraries and frameworks.

(¹: once upon a time... I tried to explain to a client, why there was no way on Earth to make their in-house MS Access solution compatible with personal data protection requirements for medical data, like 100% access control and logging. I failed... then some years later saw a story about the same problem on Coding Horror; still wonder if it was the same guy who got some other poor soul to try and go through with it, or if it was a more widespread problem at the time when personal data protection laws got enacted)