Re: lines of code?

From: Darrell Grainger (darrell_at_NOMORESPAMcs.utoronto.ca.com)
Date: 12/01/03

  • Next message: Edward G. Nilges: "Re: Programmer's unpaid overtime." 
    Date: 1 Dec 2003 01:51:30 GMT

    On Sat, 29 Nov 2003, Digital Puer wrote:

    > I have two questions about the metric of 'lines of code':
    >
    >
    > 1. How do you actually count this? On a Unix box, I can run 'wc -l'
    > to get the lines, but of course this includes comments and blank lines.

    There are scripts that will give you a line count in terms of source code.

    It is usually used by bad managers who want to judge your skills based on
    the number of lines of code you produce or by the defect ratio (number of
    defects per 1000 lines of code or defects/KLOC). The sad thing is, the
    moment a programmer knows that management is doing this they tend to write
    code like:

            if
            (expression)
            {
                    do
                    something
                    which
                    should
                    be
                    one
                    line;
            }

    Even if they don't do that it makes programmers work less to create short
    elegant solutions. For example, in second year at university, for a home
    work assignment I had to write some code that handled 17 different
    situations. I was very impressed with myself. I figured out how to
    classify the 17 different cases into 9 equivalence classes and got the
    code down to 2 pages. The professors solution did it in 2 equivalence
    classes and only 12 lines of code.

    If we are measuring skill by lines of code, I was more skilled then my
    professor. Obviously not the case.

    Since you are not look for this script for the same reason most people
    are, do a search for KLOC and you should end up finding it.

    > 2. What is a fair number of lines of code in a one-man project that
    > would show decent proficiency (i.e. for a job interview)?
    > 5000? 10,000? 100,000?

    The short answer would be 10,000. Just off the top of my head my gut tells
    me that writing a 10,000 line program will tend to require the skills of a
    proficient programmer.

    The long answer is, I have no idea. I have seen code that has a single
    function with hundreds of if/elseif/else statements, making the function,
    LITERALLY, thousands of lines long. I would have to say that someone who
    wrote a three function program that was 10,000 lines long is not someone I
    want to hire.

    The reality of the situation is that there is more than just the number of
    lines written that will determine proficiency. How long has your code been
    in use? Did it fail when there was an update to the OS? Has it been
    released to the public? How many people are using it? Did you release a
    version 2 and 3?

    The funny thing is, when I was proficient I knew it. When I'm interviewing
    a candidate and asking him questions I tend to know whether or not they
    are proficient. I don't have a specific set of questions for determining
    proficiency. I will just start chatting with the programmer. If they are
    proficient it should become obvious after a few minutes. 

    -- 
Send e-mail to: darrell at cs dot toronto dot edu
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  • Next message: Edward G. Nilges: "Re: Programmer's unpaid overtime."

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