Code duplication: Methods made out of ticky tacky.
I was reading Ted Carnahan on ticky tacky and it reminded me of code duplication. Ever start feeling like you’re in a pre-fab sub-division when you’re looking at your code? You might just have some code duplication to take care of.
The phrase ticky tacky was coined by Malvina Reynolds in the song Little Boxes made popular again by the show Weeds.
Ticky tacky: Sleazy or shoddy material used especially in the construction of look-alike tract houses
Next time you’re refactoring your tests to reduce test code duplication hum along to this Elvis Costello cover of Little Boxes with some altered lyrics:
Little methods in the editor,
Little methods made of ticky tacky
Little methods in your classes,
Little methods all the same,
Theres a green one and a pink one,
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.