5 ms·
I think the theory is a small subset of engineers can do work that speeds up the entire codebase for the rest of the engineers instead of spending time rewritin
by lathiat 6y ago
I think the theory is a small subset of engineers can do work that speeds up the entire codebase for the rest of the engineers instead of spending time rewriting that entire code base and also retraining all of those engineers.
- Cthulhu_ 6y agoI think this is just it; at some point, code becomes a numbers game, an investment game. Rewriting their PHP codebase to, say, C++ would cost 10000 work-years, whereas creating HVVM cost 100 (random numbers) at a 1000% improvement in performance. Rewrites at that scale are really expensive and take forever, and by the time it's done they'll be running behind the facts already.
- disgruntledphd2 6y agoYeah, exactly. I like to think that Mark Zuckerberg read Joel's post and took it to heart. But the pattern is super noticeable for FB, once you start paying attention.