Why are there so many redundant FMs

[Former Member]

Hey everyone, can anybody explain why there are often multiple FMs which do pretty much the same thing? As an example, let's take those two FMs:

'SO_SPLIT_FILE_AND_PATH' and 'PC_SPLIT_COMPLETE_FILENAME'

They both take the path of a file and return the filename. Why do they have to be seperate FMs?

[matt]

Different development packages, different modules developed at different times by different development teams.
It's got better over the years.

[michael_piesche]

• Development of general tasks was not coordinated in the past and it still can happen, sometimes you even find really useful 'global' functions intertwined in other very specific use case functions, that you cant use those either (because they are part of Function Groups)
• Depending on installed 'add-ons', especially with Industry Solutions (e.g. Retail, HR, Oil, ...), there are packages that will not be available for everyone
• Some functions were not marked as released at time of development, neither for internal nor for custom usage, so developer had to build their own functions, in order to avoid conflicts later when using unreleased functions