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In other words, what orangecat meant is that adding more code, even "simple" code, adds complexity to a software project. Adding 50 easy features is equal to ad
by inerte 17y ago
In other words, what orangecat meant is that adding more code, even "simple" code, adds complexity to a software project. Adding 50 easy features is equal to adding one heck of complex feature made of 50 sub parts.
The link with Kolmogorov is, I believe, that each piece added moves the set away from being simpler.
First time I read about Kolmogorov, hopefully I got it right. Anyway my first paragraph is true!
- orangecat 17y agoEssentially correct. Kolmogorov complexity is the amount of information it takes to fully describe something. A million random bits have high complexity because the shortest way to describe them is to literally list them all. The first million bits of pi have low complexity because they can be generated by an algorithm that takes much less than a million bits to describe. (The algorithm may take a long time to run, but Kolmogorov complexity doesn't care about that). From that perspective implementing a new login process for "just one client" is worse than changing it for everyone, because it increases the size of the program's description. The revised software must describe the existing login process, the new process, and the logic for deciding which clients use which process. Whereas changing it for everyone requires only describing the new process, and allows you to eliminate the description of the previous process.