Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hpda!hpdslab!hp-ptp!garye
From: garye@hp-ptp.HP.COM (Gary_Ericson)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: C source lines in file
Message-ID: <1670002@hp-ptp.HP.COM>
Date: 18 Aug 89 20:09:53 GMT
References: <35120@ccicpg.UUCP>
Organization: HP Pacific Technology Park - Sunnyvale, Ca.
Lines: 21

> ...measuring lines of code to indicate effective programming...

I agree with other posters.  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don't encourage the idea
that counting lines of code provides *any* indication of good programming,
productivity, effectiveness, whatever.

I came from a group working on a small mini-computer used in real-time
applications.  The keys to good programming were "small" and "fast".  There was
limited logical memory space, so fewer instructions were (almost) always
better.  And the very critical factor of speed was often affected by code size
(execution time, how long it took to pull the program into and out of main 
memory, etc.).  Some of the most incredible coding examples I've seen were
little pieces of code with only 3 or 4 assembly language instructions.  The
creator may have spent days designing it.  Is that productive?  Very, because
they may have been the most significant parts of the system.

Instead of counting lines of code, maybe we need to find a way to measure
"intelligence density".  I don't know of any such measure...

Gary Ericson - Hewlett-Packard, Workstation Systems Division
               phone: (408)746-5098  mailstop: 101N  email: gary@hpdsla9.hp.com