software quality - Who first created the WET Principle?

Question

Context

On my searches, online I found that the WET principle: "Write Everything Twice" seems to be inseparable from the DRY principle: "Don't Repeat Yourself".

However, while the DRY principle has a very clear definition and is well documented, the WET principle has widely varying interpretations across the web, and I was unable to find the original source to confirm which interpretation is the correct one.

According to some, WET is the exact opposite of DRY and it is exclusively used to describe the bad coding practice of not using DRY. They also say the acronym might stand for "We Enjoy Typing" or "Waste Everyone's Time", to cite a few:

• https://medium.com/@nrk25693/dry-or-wet-and-why-867ac3096483
• https://x-team.com/blog/principles-clean-code/
• https://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/answer/Which-programming-practices-alleviate-code-redundancy

However, my first contact with WET was in a positive light i.e. as a criticism of the mindless application of the DRY principle, and I was also able to find articles using or defending this definition:

• https://dev.to/wuz/stop-trying-to-be-so-dry-instead-write-everything-twice-wet-5g33
• https://kentcdodds.com/blog/aha-programming

In these articles, WET programming would imply delaying abstracting until you make sure you'll need it i.e. abstract only after the third time you've repeated yourself. Quoting Conlin Durbin:

You can ask yourself "Haven't I written this before?" two times, but never three.

And both interpretations make sense.

Question

So the question is: Does anyone know who formulated the WET acronym originally and what he actually meant?

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65908886/who-first-created-the-wet-principle

Answer 1

Waitting for answers