4 ms·

I believe compressed source code size is one of the metrics available on the "Computer Language Benchmark Game": http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/ http://shoo

by gdp 17y ago

I believe compressed source code size is one of the metrics available on the "Computer Language Benchmark Game": http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/ http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/ I feel relatively strongly that LoC is almost entirely worthless as a metric. Even compressed source code size makes me uneasy. Shameless self promotion: I wrote a blog post which appeared on HN just the other day about better ways of comparing programming languages. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=766841 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=766841 In short, I disagree that there is almost any relationship between mental effort and verbosity.

axod 17y ago
I think it'd be nice to just all stop comparing programming languages, and realize that it doesn't actually really matter much. Use whichever you love. (Failing that use the one you hate the least).
- gdp 17y ago
  Nah, it's worth having the discussion. Companies spend billions of dollars on software. I would argue that they waste most of that money because of software defects and inefficiency. There are language-based solutions that go a long way towards saving a lot of money. That's just one argument. Similarly, if someone was going out into the fields with a shovel, it would be a bit tragic if he ended up digging it all by hand when there was a perfectly good tractor nearby. So go ahead and write hobbyist software in whatever you like, but if it's going to cost other people time and money, then it is a worthwhile discussion.
- scott_s 17y ago
  Some of us are interested in comparing programming languages because we find the expression of computation inherently interesting.
  - axod 17y ago
    There's also linguists that love comparing spoken languages. But for most people, most spoken languages are good enough to communicate - just like most programming languages are good enough to express what you want.
    - scott_s 17y ago
      That is a fair point, but it's orthogonal to the discussion at hand.
    - jacquesm 17y ago
      By comparing things we learn. By comparing programming languages we learn things about them, such as how easy it is to express yourself. By doing that over time programming languages evolve. If we didn't compare programming languages you'd be programming ALGOL right now and the whole web things (much less the internet) would have never happened.
igouy 17y ago
> ...compressed source code size is one of the metrics... For example - http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/benchmark.php?test=spectralnorm&lang=all&sort=gz http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/benchmark.php?test=spe... FAQ http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/faq.php#gzbytes http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/faq.php#gzbytes

by gdp 17y ago

axod 17y ago

I think it'd be nice to just all stop comparing programming languages, and realize that it doesn't actually really matter much. Use whichever you love. (Failing that use the one you hate the least).

gdp 17y ago
Nah, it's worth having the discussion. Companies spend billions of dollars on software. I would argue that they waste most of that money because of software defects and inefficiency. There are language-based solutions that go a long way towards saving a lot of money. That's just one argument. Similarly, if someone was going out into the fields with a shovel, it would be a bit tragic if he ended up digging it all by hand when there was a perfectly good tractor nearby. So go ahead and write hobbyist software in whatever you like, but if it's going to cost other people time and money, then it is a worthwhile discussion.
scott_s 17y ago
Some of us are interested in comparing programming languages because we find the expression of computation inherently interesting.
- axod 17y ago
  There's also linguists that love comparing spoken languages. But for most people, most spoken languages are good enough to communicate - just like most programming languages are good enough to express what you want.
  - scott_s 17y ago
    That is a fair point, but it's orthogonal to the discussion at hand.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    By comparing things we learn. By comparing programming languages we learn things about them, such as how easy it is to express yourself. By doing that over time programming languages evolve. If we didn't compare programming languages you'd be programming ALGOL right now and the whole web things (much less the internet) would have never happened.

igouy 17y ago

> ...compressed source code size is one of the metrics... For example - http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/benchmark.php?test=spectralnorm&lang=all&sort=gz http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/benchmark.php?test=spe... FAQ http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/faq.php#gzbytes http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/faq.php#gzbytes