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by scotty79 2824 days ago
Code is like science. You don't ignore somebody's contribution just because you don't agree with their values. If it's good it's good. Doesn't matter who birthed it.
1 comments

For some values of 'good'? That's the whole issue.
Wait, so someone's code can be bad because he is a bad person? Even though if you didn't know he is a bad person his code would be just as good as written by good person?
No what makes code good or bad? That's a value judgement; different from my values can be part of the evaluation
Sure, it's a value judgement. But it's value judgement about the code not the author. It's just like science. We can't say: let's skip the whole rocket thing because it was invented by a commie and a nazi.

Also value judgement doesn't mean totally arbitrary judgement. If code doesn't work it's not good, if it's not maintainable, it's not good. There are qualities of good code that programmers tend to agree about. Being written by wonderful human being, is not one of those qualities.