3 ms·

4 months into a new job, and I realized I had contributed about -4000 lines of code. I thought, how weird it would be to explain (especially to someone less te

4 months into a new job, and I realized I had contributed about -4000 lines of code. I thought, how weird it would be to explain (especially to someone less technical), that I'd pretty much just been deleting code since I started. I'd also added a number of important features along the way. Since then, I've taken some pride in trying to be a "net negative" (by line count), contributor to any code base I work on. Not always possible, but it's a good mindset to strive for leaner designs/implementations.

nickpsecurity 11y ago
Show management a picture of the code. Show them a visualization of all of it with its myriad connections. Tell them you just got rid of 4,000 lines of that crap. Show a visualization that's smaller and connected neatly. Promise to continue attempting this incrementally and safely in between new features. New features that are coded similarly neat. Not sure if it will work but I keep wanting to see someone try it. :)
- girvo 11y ago
  I've pretty much exactly that, and it did work. Though it was at a company that had a headcount of 15, so in a larger org it might not go down so well.
  - greggyb 11y ago
    We've done this as a recap of successes with a few clients, now. It helps that the old stuff was stupid slow and ours has been both understandable and faster.
agumonkey 11y ago
My favorite OS updates are the one with negative net install. Keep trimming.
nostrademons 11y ago
There was someone at Google whose total code delta over his tenure was something like -2M. Yep, two million lines of code deleted. May we all be that productive.
- intrasight 11y ago
  A programming god I'd say
  - josu 11y ago
    Turns out it was black hat guy (from xkcd) deleting 2M lines of comments.
- willis77 11y ago
  "Oh, him? That's Chuck. He just runs our commits through a minifier and takes credit for the lost lines. Means well, but he's kind of a jerk."
  - some_furry 11y ago
    This is the funniest comment I've read all week.
- Already__Taken 11y ago
  Lead Google Wave developer I assume.

nickpsecurity 11y ago

Show management a picture of the code. Show them a visualization of all of it with its myriad connections. Tell them you just got rid of 4,000 lines of that crap. Show a visualization that's smaller and connected neatly. Promise to continue attempting this incrementally and safely in between new features. New features that are coded similarly neat. Not sure if it will work but I keep wanting to see someone try it. :)

girvo 11y ago
I've pretty much exactly that, and it did work. Though it was at a company that had a headcount of 15, so in a larger org it might not go down so well.
- greggyb 11y ago
  We've done this as a recap of successes with a few clients, now. It helps that the old stuff was stupid slow and ours has been both understandable and faster.

agumonkey 11y ago

My favorite OS updates are the one with negative net install. Keep trimming.

nostrademons 11y ago

There was someone at Google whose total code delta over his tenure was something like -2M. Yep, two million lines of code deleted. May we all be that productive.

intrasight 11y ago
A programming god I'd say
- josu 11y ago
  Turns out it was black hat guy (from xkcd) deleting 2M lines of comments.
willis77 11y ago
"Oh, him? That's Chuck. He just runs our commits through a minifier and takes credit for the lost lines. Means well, but he's kind of a jerk."
- some_furry 11y ago
  This is the funniest comment I've read all week.
Already__Taken 11y ago
Lead Google Wave developer I assume.