Re: lines of code?

From: Joona I Palaste (palaste_at_cc.helsinki.fi)
Date: 12/05/03 

Date: 5 Dec 2003 10:48:51 GMT

Joseph Dane <jdane@hawaii.edu> scribbled the following
on comp.lang.java.programmer:
> NahtMy ReelName <ergo@notavalidaddress.com> writes:
>> My point was that "wc -l" is one useful metric of progress and
>> complexity. My remaining comments are abuse you all for the lazy
>> unmotivated whiners that you are, of course.

> I happen to agree, to a certain extent. however, when management
> makes decisions based even loosly on LOC there's an immediate
> incentive to inflate LOC. there are *always* going to be ways to do
> this, even in the presence of code reviews, and I would argue that
> this is a perfectly legitimate response on the part of the
> developer. The developer doesn't need to shoot for a 100% increase
> in size -- 25% is probably safe and undetecable. And when comparing
> the output of two developers where the output is different by orders
> of magnitude, there are probably going to be clear reasons for the
> difference that would have shown up even without the LOC comparison.

> LOC is most (only?) useful when *not* communicated to management.

Myself, I must be working against those managers "NahtMy" refers to,
because I usually try to make the classes I write *shorter* rather than
*longer*, and still do the same thing... 

-- 
/-- Joona Palaste (palaste@cc.helsinki.fi) ------------- Finland --------\
\-- http://www.helsinki.fi/~palaste --------------------- rules! --------/
"I will never display my bum in public again."
   - Homer Simpson

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