4 ms·

I don't believe that. The speed of producing code is not relative to typing speed. LOC per day depends on the complexity of the lines. I can write 500 simple

by NateDad 12y ago

I don't believe that. The speed of producing code is not relative to typing speed. LOC per day depends on the complexity of the lines. I can write 500 simple lines or 50 complex lines of code in a day. I'd agree that higher level languages deal with some of the complexity for you, like memory management. But I bet the business logic takes a similar amount of time in almost any language, assuming the developer has the same amount of experience in each language.

Joeri 12y ago
I don't think typing speed factors into it. It's more a factor of cognitive load. While programming you are working at the level of "expressions", and your speed is limited to how quickly you can turn business logic into appropriate sets of expressions. Programming languages that are lower level require more expressions to say the same thing, hence are slower to program in. I don't think it's a controversial notion to say that assembly is less productive than C, which is less productive than Python. The reason is the number of lines (or rather expressions) needed to achieve a piece of functionality. The business logic most definitely does not take the same amount of time when written in assembly compared to python. The higher level languages tend to be more productive, but it is only a given if the higher level language is actually more concise. Here are some papers that underbuild this argument: http://page.mi.fu-berlin.de/prechelt/Biblio/jccpprt_computer2000.pdf http://page.mi.fu-berlin.de/prechelt/Biblio/jccpprt_computer... https://files.ifi.uzh.ch/rerg/amadeus/teaching/seminars/seminar_ws0203/Seminar_3.pdf https://files.ifi.uzh.ch/rerg/amadeus/teaching/seminars/semi...
jshen 12y ago
The way to reduce lines of code is to create good abstractions. Some languages may be better at this than others, and I think this is more important than the type system of the language.
- dllthomas 12y ago
  In some languages, the type system helps quite a bit in creating abstractions.
  - jshen 12y ago
    I doubt it makes it easier to create abstractions compared to a lisp.
    - dllthomas 12y ago
      There are upsides and downsides to working in something with a sufficiently useful type system versus working in a lisp - even as pertains specifically to abstractions. You can doubt, but I'm speaking from some experience with both. That doesn't necessarily mean I'm right, of course, but take it for what it's worth.

by NateDad 12y ago

Joeri 12y ago

I don't think typing speed factors into it. It's more a factor of cognitive load. While programming you are working at the level of "expressions", and your speed is limited to how quickly you can turn business logic into appropriate sets of expressions. Programming languages that are lower level require more expressions to say the same thing, hence are slower to program in. I don't think it's a controversial notion to say that assembly is less productive than C, which is less productive than Python. The reason is the number of lines (or rather expressions) needed to achieve a piece of functionality. The business logic most definitely does not take the same amount of time when written in assembly compared to python. The higher level languages tend to be more productive, but it is only a given if the higher level language is actually more concise. Here are some papers that underbuild this argument: http://page.mi.fu-berlin.de/prechelt/Biblio/jccpprt_computer2000.pdf http://page.mi.fu-berlin.de/prechelt/Biblio/jccpprt_computer... https://files.ifi.uzh.ch/rerg/amadeus/teaching/seminars/seminar_ws0203/Seminar_3.pdf https://files.ifi.uzh.ch/rerg/amadeus/teaching/seminars/semi...

jshen 12y ago

The way to reduce lines of code is to create good abstractions. Some languages may be better at this than others, and I think this is more important than the type system of the language.

dllthomas 12y ago
In some languages, the type system helps quite a bit in creating abstractions.
- jshen 12y ago
  I doubt it makes it easier to create abstractions compared to a lisp.
  - dllthomas 12y ago
    There are upsides and downsides to working in something with a sufficiently useful type system versus working in a lisp - even as pertains specifically to abstractions. You can doubt, but I'm speaking from some experience with both. That doesn't necessarily mean I'm right, of course, but take it for what it's worth.