&gt; But what if you&#x27;re building software that generates code for long running projects&#x2F;code bases (e.g. aircrafts, defence, power-plants, telecom equipment, medical devices, mobile radio base stations). Selecting some closed source tool to generate foo can cost you dearly.<p>Yes, that would be insane. So don&#x27;t do it? If you willfully chooses badly suited tools, then you get what you deserve.<p>&gt; You have to version these tools (e.g. the binaries if you don&#x27;t have the source) to the generaters in your VCS to provide reproducability.<p>You can vendor source code generators. If you want to be extra-certain that generator output remains the same across upgrades, you can also check-in the generated code and manually inspect any changes that happen. (I&#x27;m assuming <i>relatively</i> sane source code generators that don&#x27;t intentionally obfuscate things.)<p>So, yes, if you choose a terrible code generator then you&#x27;ll be in trouble.<p>What alternative approaches would you suggest, incidentally, where you&#x27;re not also just as much at the mercy of the whims of the tools you&#x27;re using?