Code 'Generation' with DRY (don't repeat yourself)??

Question

Hello I am new to the forum so please be kind,
I have recently gotten an internship with one of the offices with my University and am working a project (for a while now). I spend most of the day just getting all the classes assembled to be used (often a two day process) and what I would like to do is pass in a few parameters then have it generate the majority of the standard code that takes so much time to type out.
What I am referring to is Consructors/ Setters/ Getters and toString.
Parameters:
Class name
int first 5
double secondMost of this stuff is pretty standard, but I figured there was a template or something I could build to do much of this for me. Unfoturnaly the University teaches C++, so learning Java on my own is somewhat difficult at times.
Oh. I had found a wikipedia page about a design method called DRY, basically it pointed out that I could do just what I am wanting to do, but unfortunately I cannot seem to find an example or any detailed information about this method.
This is what I have rolling around in my head at the moment:
The use a bunch of strings and printf("%s, args) ...to build this entire page, then go in and enter the things that I couldn't generate.
I could see this working, but I had felt this would go against code resuability because when the class/things I would generate would change, I would have to do some serious changes to this to get it working again. (Maybe that is the point).
I would greatly appreciate some guidance on this, or pointed to more information.
Thanks

Answer 1

dajohnson1s wrote:
Hello I am new to the forum so please be kind,
I have recently gotten an internship with one of the offices with my University and am working a project (for a while now). I spend most of the day just getting all the classes assembled to be used (often a two day process) and what I would like to do is pass in a few parameters then have it generate the majority of the standard code that takes so much time to type out.
What I am referring to is Consructors/ Setters/ Getters and toString.
Parameters:
Class name
int first 5
double second
Most of this stuff is pretty standard, but I figured there was a template or something I could build to do much of this for me. Unfoturnaly the University teaches C++, so learning Java on my own is somewhat difficult at times.
First step is recognizing a pattern.
Second step, experience wise, is learning to recognize the difference between something that should be generated and something that shouldn't.
Third step is implementation.
Code generation should only be used if it can be insured that it eases the task now and in addition does not complicate the task in the future. That must include the possibility that the generation part will be abandoned so the generated code itself must be in such a state that it can be maintained.
Once you have a pattern then you must choose a way to represent the pattern as a 'source'. Sources can one or more of the following: text, xml, sql scripts, sql databases, existing source files, existing code bases, design document, pdf files. Anything that you can extract a definition from will work.
An example text file relevant to your task might look like this.
      Class: XxxMyclas
      Attribute: Count int
      Attribute: Name String.From that you create a standard compiler type idiom
1. Parse (read file and collect data)
2. Syntax (validate collected data, which might also be part of 1)
3. Generate (use data to generate new source)
Each phase can embodied certain complications (can not must). Some examples.
1. Parse - provide an xml to define data types.
2. Generate - provide a template file used to generate the code, define where the output goes, insure existing files not overwritten, etc.
Your description sounds like a one shot - in that you will not be generating every everytime but rather will generate it once and then modify it.
Oh. I had found a wikipedia page about a design method called DRY, basically it pointed out that I could do just what I am wanting to do, but unfortunately I cannot seem to find an example or any detailed information about this method.
The only general books I have found on the subject is one directed at Perl (Perl Munging) which is sort of related and one for .Net (or maybe java) but which is directed at a proprietary commercial product.
This is what I have rolling around in my head at the moment:
The use a bunch of strings and printf("%s, args) ...to build this entire page, then go in and enter the things that I couldn't generate.
I could see this working, but I had felt this would go against code resuability because when the class/things I would generate would change, I would have to do some serious changes to this to get it working again. (Maybe that is the point).
Code generation has its best usage if you can recognize a pattern and then implement it such that manual modifications are not needed. This however is tempered by the requirement that I first mentioned that the generated code must be maintainable by itself.