3 ms·

How much do you pay per line of code?

2 points by yegor256a 13y ago

dalke 13y ago
The variability in LOC is so high that no interesting conclusions can be drawn. For example, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/966800/mythical-man-month-10-lines-per-developer-day-how-close-on-large-projects http://stackoverflow.com/questions/966800/mythical-man-month... reports projects ranging from +200 LOC/day to -6,000 LOC/day. Nor is development cost linear in the number of lines of code. The 200kLOC across 5 languages is not simply 6.3x more complicated than 30k lines across 2 languages. FWIW, Primary Avionics System Software for the Space Shuttle cost NASA slightly over $1,000 per line.
- yegor256a 13y ago
  Well, I've drawn an interesting conclusion though :) First, the article is talking about "lines changed", which includes new lines and deleted lines. Second, both products mentioned in the article are of the same complexity, even though they use different languages: PHP stack vs. Java stack. But I appreciate your feedback :)
  - dalke 13y ago
    It's a conclusion which cannot be applied to any other situation. That makes it an uninteresting conclusion. "both products mentioned in the article are of the same complexity". Where does the essay say that, and how is it measured? Since SLOC and number of required programming languages are larger, it's pretty clear to me that they don't have the same complexity.
tetha 13y ago
So. I have recently spent about 5 full focussed days to crank out about 1k - 4k lines of code (can't check at the moment, vacation), which will save our operations team at least 3-4 full days per month. How much will each line of cost count? 4k / (my hourly payment * 40 hours)? 4k / ((my hourly payment - the average hourly payment of our operational team) * 40 hours)? What about we include the fact that the new system is less frustrating to operate than the last one? What about the fact that the new system is more stable and saves frustration and plain time (since it just works and people don't get blocked in their workflow) in our software development team? So, overall, point being: I don't see it feasible, or even possible, to calculate the full monetary impact of a line of code in a medium to large company.
- yegor256a 13y ago
  Of course, sometimes a complex algorithm takes just a page of a text, but a month of work. However, the projects mentioned in the article were not inventing any algorithms. They were developing business software, according to formal requirements.

2 points by yegor256a 13y ago

dalke 13y ago

The variability in LOC is so high that no interesting conclusions can be drawn. For example, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/966800/mythical-man-month-10-lines-per-developer-day-how-close-on-large-projects http://stackoverflow.com/questions/966800/mythical-man-month... reports projects ranging from +200 LOC/day to -6,000 LOC/day. Nor is development cost linear in the number of lines of code. The 200kLOC across 5 languages is not simply 6.3x more complicated than 30k lines across 2 languages. FWIW, Primary Avionics System Software for the Space Shuttle cost NASA slightly over $1,000 per line.

yegor256a 13y ago
Well, I've drawn an interesting conclusion though :) First, the article is talking about "lines changed", which includes new lines and deleted lines. Second, both products mentioned in the article are of the same complexity, even though they use different languages: PHP stack vs. Java stack. But I appreciate your feedback :)
- dalke 13y ago
  It's a conclusion which cannot be applied to any other situation. That makes it an uninteresting conclusion. "both products mentioned in the article are of the same complexity". Where does the essay say that, and how is it measured? Since SLOC and number of required programming languages are larger, it's pretty clear to me that they don't have the same complexity.

tetha 13y ago

So. I have recently spent about 5 full focussed days to crank out about 1k - 4k lines of code (can't check at the moment, vacation), which will save our operations team at least 3-4 full days per month. How much will each line of cost count? 4k / (my hourly payment * 40 hours)? 4k / ((my hourly payment - the average hourly payment of our operational team) * 40 hours)? What about we include the fact that the new system is less frustrating to operate than the last one? What about the fact that the new system is more stable and saves frustration and plain time (since it just works and people don't get blocked in their workflow) in our software development team? So, overall, point being: I don't see it feasible, or even possible, to calculate the full monetary impact of a line of code in a medium to large company.

yegor256a 13y ago
Of course, sometimes a complex algorithm takes just a page of a text, but a month of work. However, the projects mentioned in the article were not inventing any algorithms. They were developing business software, according to formal requirements.