When you go too far reducing boilerplate you get to a point where configuration becomes the code and the actual code becomes black box that people barely understand. And then they replicate what's already in the black box because they aren't sure it's there, and you do the same things over and over in every layer. And in some layers you do it one way and in others - other way. And then requirements change and you change the code and it still works the old way SOME of the time, but you only discover that in production, because the test case you used when you developed is handled on the layer where you changed it correctly.
And then if it's buried deep enough somebody will add another layer and fix the cases that were found - there.
And that's how the disgusting legacy code happens.
KISS, please. Unnecessary abstraction is the root of almost all problems in programming.
Although, I feel like very often, the idea of resucing boilerplate should __not__ to hide the boilerplate one layer below- it should be to __try not to write the boilerplate__ …
Take this very specific example at hand.. What is the meaning of this “JoelEvent” class? Why is it there?
It appears that is wraps a list of functions, with methods to push and pop from it. Why is it necessary to write them?
“Dispatch” reimplements function application , apparently? Btw, it is beyond me why one would loop over this.listeners and the check if the element is in this.listeners .
In a reasonable language or framework, I cannot in any way see a reason why this code needs to be written.. This is the idea of removing boilerplate, to me!
I think the biggest problem with templating/reusing instead of boilerplate is just how hard it is for a dev to answer the question(s): has somebody already done this, is their solution flexible enough to fit mine, etc.
Hell, just helpers/utilities functions within an organisation aren't always used, devs end up reimplementing stuff all the time simply because there's no easy way to know about it (documentation is only one part of this).
And then if it's buried deep enough somebody will add another layer and fix the cases that were found - there.
And that's how the disgusting legacy code happens.
KISS, please. Unnecessary abstraction is the root of almost all problems in programming.