Philosophies on design reuse

[BigJ]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

The newest set of rules (2012) are straightforward.

Robot elements designed or created before the Kickoff presentation, including software, are not permitted.

The example even goes so far as to mention programming, and that teams should not copy over large chunks of code from year to year.

So the rules are straight forward and the intent is clear. Follow them to the best of your ability, and make your Grandmother proud.

Except for the blue box mentioning...

Originally Posted by Blue Box

Example: A different team develops a similar solution during the fall, and plans to use the
developed software on their competition Robot. After completing the software, they post
it in a generally accessible public forum and make the code available to all teams.
Because they have made their software generally available (per the definition of COTS, it
is considered COTS software and they can use it on their Robot).

I would argue that CAD designs "made public" should also count as COTS.

Rewriting code that instead could be reused (outside of educational purposes) or designed for reuse in the first place is a "bad thing" and should not be encouraged (in my opinion).