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The engineering effort required to split up a mammoth code base where everything has been written based on those assumptions about the rest of the codebase is m
by d1zzy 6y ago
The engineering effort required to split up a mammoth code base where everything has been written based on those assumptions about the rest of the codebase is making such a split extremely unlikely to succeed. We're not talking about a few millions lines of code, we're talking about billions[1] of lines of code. It would take more than a decade of having thousands of engineers work only on this and not do anything else (like, you know, actually develop features to keep being competitive). I don't see how it would work.
What I could see working tho would be to focus on exporting some of the very core internal libraries[2] and then go on a project by project basis and do the work required to be made to work externally. The latter would be a never ending effort but the end result would be a number of averagely successful projects that spin off Google.
[1] https://www.wired.com/2015/09/google-2-billion-lines-codeand-one-place/ https://www.wired.com/2015/09/google-2-billion-lines-codeand... 2 billion lines of code in 2015, I'd imagine there are at least 3 by now, considering the increase in employee count.
[2] https://opensource.google/projects/abseil https://opensource.google/projects/abseil
- menage 6y agoBut most of those billions of lines are not the low-level infrastructure relied on by many projects. To split out a single product would only require creating external versions of a much smaller subset of the code (and once that had been done once, other products being split out could build on that effort).
- heavyset_go 6y agoCompanies with millions of miles of physical infrastructure have been broken up before. You're missing the forest for the trees if you're fixating on the code.
- dodobirdlord 6y agoBreaking up physical infrastructure is a lot easier than breaking up something like Google's monorepo, and that's not to mention all of the physical infrastructure Google has all over the world that would have to be divvied up as well.
- cheerlessbog 6y agoIs this a negative result of mono repo? There’s no natural boundary physics.
- 627467 6y agoId like to think that if younger versions of sergey and larry (and other relevant eng working with them) suddenly time traveled to our times they wouldn't think its impossible to build a good search product that doesn't involved "mammoth code base"
- astral303 6y agoHear hear! All I hear is the lack of imagination.