4 ms·

Keeping up with the Zenters

23 points by garbowza 19y ago

gregwebs 19y ago
I had assumed the Zenters had written their code in Java when I read that.
- deleted 19y ago
  [deleted]
pg 19y ago
Come to think of it, I believe the guys who wrote the most code this past summer were the Anywhere.FMs, who also got bought in the first 6 months. So while I would not want to encourage people to equate LOC with quality, it does seem to be a good sign when founders write a lot of code.
- pchristensen 19y ago
  FounderLOC (FLOC?) is probably a better metric than Enterprise LOC (ELOC). Can we add this qualifier to the YCNews vocabulary?
adamsmith 19y ago
At Xobni I singlehandedly wrote 30,000 lines in three months. That fucking hurt. But that sunk cost was my #1 motivator during the first year. I remember telling myself that I had to make this work, because if I didn't then I'd have to start all over again. There was a point a long time ago where Xobni was very close to dying. PG said to me "Well if xyz happens then Xobni will be dead." I was hesitant to argue against PG in those days, but I remember saying without hesitation "No, if xyz happens then I'm moving to Texas to live with my parents and eat Ramen noodles for as long as it takes to come back. I will not let this thing die." I couldn't bear the thought of starting over.
- eusman 19y ago
  thanks for sharing this
arasakik 19y ago
We're at 38,649 lines of python code according to that script excluding test code, html, css and images since January 1st, 2008. However, this includes white space and comments. So probably 1/2 or 2/3 of that.
- SwellJoe 19y ago
  You don't have to guesstimate. http://www.dwheeler.com/sloccount/ http://www.dwheeler.com/sloccount/ http://cloc.sourceforge.net/ http://cloc.sourceforge.net/
  - thingsilearned 19y ago
    Nice finds. Would have saved me writing that script and seems like it does a more complete job.
benn 19y ago
Code LOC: 1013 Test LOC: 268 Code to Test Ratio: 1:0.3 3 weeks in. But if I count all the prototypes it's probably closer to 5k lines of code. We probably need to write more code.
tlrobinson 19y ago
If you use Subversion, I suggest svnstat: http://sourceforge.net/projects/svnstat http://sourceforge.net/projects/svnstat We've gone from about 20k to 45k LOC in 2 months.
edw519 19y ago
What a tricky metric. Here's a hypothetical example of what often happens to me: 1. Have a problem, need a module, copy a template: 100 LOC. 2. Add meat to the bones: 500 LOC. 3. Start testing & find gaps: 700 LOC. 4. Keep testing until it works (almost) perfectly: 1000 LOC. 5. Refactor, rename variables, tighten comments, pull common objects, strip out what was never really needed: 300 LOC. A lot of work to get to 300 LOC, but I couldn't have done it without writing 1000 LOC in the first place. How do I measure that?
- xirium 19y ago
  It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. -- Mark Twain Writing, when done well, takes time. Some journalists write to a certain length and then shorten to improve quality. A similar process occurs when programming. A scaffolding is required and the final program is smaller. Unfortunately, this process of honing is greatly undervalued and often skipped. It takes significant time and creates less impressive statistics when you've finished. Regardless, the reduced volume of code will be create a long-term saving.
tlrobinson 19y ago
A one liner for recursive line counts (explicitly allowing certain extensions): find . -regex ".*\.\(js\|py\|rb\|php\|html\)" | xargs wc -l
- foonamefoo 19y ago
  it is a shame that find . -name "*{js,py,rb,php,html}" | xargs wc -l I guess {} globbing is bash specific?
  - deleted 19y ago
    [deleted]
- nostrademons 19y ago
  You can also exclude certain file patterns by throwing in a grep -v or two, eg. my command for counting JavaScript lines and excluding 3rd-party libraries is: find . -name "*.js" | grep -v jquery | xargs wc -l
reitzensteinm 19y ago
55,000 lines of code in the Rock Solid Arcade games so far (4 games, including one bigger unreleased in development). Started work around 3 1/2 months ago. I'd have written them in fewer lines, but I didn't have the time.

23 points by garbowza 19y ago

gregwebs 19y ago

I had assumed the Zenters had written their code in Java when I read that.

deleted 19y ago
[deleted]

pg 19y ago

Come to think of it, I believe the guys who wrote the most code this past summer were the Anywhere.FMs, who also got bought in the first 6 months. So while I would not want to encourage people to equate LOC with quality, it does seem to be a good sign when founders write a lot of code.

pchristensen 19y ago
FounderLOC (FLOC?) is probably a better metric than Enterprise LOC (ELOC). Can we add this qualifier to the YCNews vocabulary?

adamsmith 19y ago

At Xobni I singlehandedly wrote 30,000 lines in three months. That fucking hurt. But that sunk cost was my #1 motivator during the first year. I remember telling myself that I had to make this work, because if I didn't then I'd have to start all over again. There was a point a long time ago where Xobni was very close to dying. PG said to me "Well if xyz happens then Xobni will be dead." I was hesitant to argue against PG in those days, but I remember saying without hesitation "No, if xyz happens then I'm moving to Texas to live with my parents and eat Ramen noodles for as long as it takes to come back. I will not let this thing die." I couldn't bear the thought of starting over.

eusman 19y ago
thanks for sharing this

arasakik 19y ago

We're at 38,649 lines of python code according to that script excluding test code, html, css and images since January 1st, 2008. However, this includes white space and comments. So probably 1/2 or 2/3 of that.

SwellJoe 19y ago
You don't have to guesstimate. http://www.dwheeler.com/sloccount/ http://www.dwheeler.com/sloccount/ http://cloc.sourceforge.net/ http://cloc.sourceforge.net/
- thingsilearned 19y ago
  Nice finds. Would have saved me writing that script and seems like it does a more complete job.

benn 19y ago

Code LOC: 1013 Test LOC: 268 Code to Test Ratio: 1:0.3 3 weeks in. But if I count all the prototypes it's probably closer to 5k lines of code. We probably need to write more code.

tlrobinson 19y ago

If you use Subversion, I suggest svnstat: http://sourceforge.net/projects/svnstat http://sourceforge.net/projects/svnstat We've gone from about 20k to 45k LOC in 2 months.

edw519 19y ago

What a tricky metric. Here's a hypothetical example of what often happens to me: 1. Have a problem, need a module, copy a template: 100 LOC. 2. Add meat to the bones: 500 LOC. 3. Start testing & find gaps: 700 LOC. 4. Keep testing until it works (almost) perfectly: 1000 LOC. 5. Refactor, rename variables, tighten comments, pull common objects, strip out what was never really needed: 300 LOC. A lot of work to get to 300 LOC, but I couldn't have done it without writing 1000 LOC in the first place. How do I measure that?

xirium 19y ago
It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. -- Mark Twain Writing, when done well, takes time. Some journalists write to a certain length and then shorten to improve quality. A similar process occurs when programming. A scaffolding is required and the final program is smaller. Unfortunately, this process of honing is greatly undervalued and often skipped. It takes significant time and creates less impressive statistics when you've finished. Regardless, the reduced volume of code will be create a long-term saving.

tlrobinson 19y ago

A one liner for recursive line counts (explicitly allowing certain extensions): find . -regex ".*\.\(js\|py\|rb\|php\|html\)" | xargs wc -l

foonamefoo 19y ago
it is a shame that find . -name "*{js,py,rb,php,html}" | xargs wc -l I guess {} globbing is bash specific?
- deleted 19y ago
  [deleted]
nostrademons 19y ago
You can also exclude certain file patterns by throwing in a grep -v or two, eg. my command for counting JavaScript lines and excluding 3rd-party libraries is: find . -name "*.js" | grep -v jquery | xargs wc -l

reitzensteinm 19y ago

55,000 lines of code in the Rock Solid Arcade games so far (4 games, including one bigger unreleased in development). Started work around 3 1/2 months ago. I'd have written them in fewer lines, but I didn't have the time.