[dannypgh]

An ad hominem argument is one in which you reject a position not on its merits but because of who is making it. They took a position that copy/pasting code leads to unmaintainable code, therefore his argument is not ad hominem.

He's being insulting, sure, but that doesn't mean he's making an ad hominem argument.

[twelvechairs]

It is ad hominem. The ad hominem part is the part which infers the parent poster makes whole teams grind to a halt and also earns less than himself.