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Microsoft and IBM Lines of code clash >In the PBS TV series based on Bob Cringely's Accidental Empires, there is a sequence where Steve Ballmer describes the e
by octopusRex 3y ago
Microsoft and IBM Lines of code clash
>In the PBS TV series based on Bob Cringely's Accidental Empires, there is a sequence where Steve Ballmer describes the experience of co-developing OS/2 with IBM, how the whole thing became a fantastic clash of corporate culture, with Microsoft having the small-company attitude of getting things done, and IBM being focused on internal measures primarily KLoCs, that is thousands of lines of code as a measure of programmer productivity. "All they cared about," raves Ballmer, "was KLoCs and KLoCs and KLoCs." IBM, apparently, did not care whether the code was any good as long as there was a lot of it.
https://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=1022357 https://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=1022357
- exitb 3y agoFor a bit of context, the TV series this refers to is called „Triumph of the Nerds” and it’s a great watch, even today (maybe ever more so?).
- sourcecodeplz 3y agoFound it on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toSRmKKiosQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toSRmKKiosQ
- patrickmay 3y agoNot just IBM. A few years back I worked on a large project with one of the big international consulting companies as the prime contractor. They threw a party for the whole team when the codebase hit one million lines of code. Those of us who knew better treated the "celebration" as a wake.
- pixl97 3y agoIt's terrifying working around fintec and seeing how many 20MLOC monoliths are laying around and the code quality issues that crop up in them.
- helpmefindpurp 3y agoThis is cope. those applications are there because they work. Mistakes in "20M LOC monoliths" are exceedingly rare in the financial world. Look how bad "hipster" software is in comparison! Billions in profit means billions in quality
- Double_a_92 3y agoThe problem is not that they don't work, it's that they can't ever be touched again because it's impossible for anything to understand the code.
- helpmefindpurp 3y agoThe people looking at them just lack the skills...