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> "lines of code" without context is a liability, more is not better. Doesn't more lines == more features == more value. How is that not better?
by flkenosad 3y ago
> "lines of code" without context is a liability, more is not better.
Doesn't more lines == more features == more value.
How is that not better?
- JohnFen 3y agoI don't think that equation holds. More lines of code do not always mean more features. More features do not always mean more value.
- giantrobot 3y agoMy first hundred lines in a module might be a feature but the next hundred lines in that module are likely handling unforeseen edge cases. My next -150 lines can be me refactoring the module to just be better designed. Counting lines is a terrible metric for software. It lacks any sort of useful context.
- gls2ro 3y agoif you adopt LoC as productivity metric then this is what you will get: first 6 months: more LoC => more features next 6 months: more LoC => less features next 6 months: more LoC => 1 feature next 6 months: more LoC => some existing features not working well and so on because a new feature is not only adding code but changing code. and the more code you have the more you have to change it.
- seadan83 3y agoMore lines does not equal more features! I just ripped out a bunch of unnecessary debug logging, the computation for that, unnecessary data copies, and then a 200 line method turned into 3 lines. What's more, the debug code had bugs I in it and would crash if it actually caught an exception. To my knowledge researchers have not found a single metric that correlates with bug count other than total lines of code. Unit testing, developer experience, none of it is predictive of bug count, only size of code base has a correlation.