Around the world in many companies of different sizes, within different sectors you may hear the phrase 'internal code'. This is the term given to code which does not leave the building. It may be code written as part of test harnesses or simply some prototype code. In many cases code which is internal is not subjected to the same test procedures and rigorous checks that are targeted at production code. It is often sloppy and 'write-only'.
From my experience I believe that there is no such thing as internal code; that all code is ultimately external and should be treated as such. After all, how many times have you heard the sentence:
"If we just extend the prototype then we can release it as a product and deal with the technical debt later."
More and more I find myself believing that branding code as internal just affords (some - let us be careful not to tarnish everyone) developers the option to code something which is of poor quality. Generally speaking a good programmer will write high quality code all of the time; code which is flexible, maintainable, readable, testable and ultimately reusable. Therefore if you afford yourself the convenience of writing poor code you are not a good programmer.
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