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> Do we really know what the average programmer actually produces? Industry average is 2,000 lines of code per programmer per year. I've regularly produced 10
by adekok 12y ago
> Do we really know what the average programmer actually produces?
Industry average is 2,000 lines of code per programmer per year.
I've regularly produced 10x to 40x that amount. Others I've talked to have done the same.
The difference between "low volume" and "high volume" programmers is usually pretty stark. My experience is that it's not so much experience as problem solving skills.
If you have a good understanding of the problem, you can come up with the correct solution, and move on to another problem. If you don't understand the problem, you'll work for weeks and get nowhere.
There's also a methodical approach. As an anecdote, I once had to use a script from another developer in the same company. It just didn't work. Paths hard-coded to his home directory (for a script supposedly used in the test suite), etc. I spent 3 days fixing it, and told him it had problems because it had no error checking.
His response? "I don't have time to write error checks."
My response was "WTF? I don't have time to not write error checks."
The 10x programmer has a fundamentally different approach to programming than the bad programmer.
- Spooky23 12y agoI've observed the same thing in different contexts, but IMO that's supervisory negligence that allowed an employee to go rogue. The story you're telling isn't a bad programmer -- he's a liar! He probably copied the file into the test suite and watched it fail, but it allowed him to report progress to the PM. (Covering for the time spent fucking around on the Internet) That clown needs adult supervision.
- fsloth 12y agoThe LOC/month amount depends heavily on the problem at hand. With new code and familiar domain I'd say I can hammer in a few thousand LOC a week. With a horrible legacy stack I've spent weeks on work that in the end resulted in a single new function call at a particular location.
- bluedino 12y agoLines of code isn't a good measuring stick.
- danieltillett 12y agoWow 2000 lines of code per year - that is around 8 lines a day! I consider myself a very average developer and I would write 20x this. Maybe I am not so average after all :)
- Gigablah 12y agoI could delete more than that in a week :)
- tux3 12y ago2000 Loc/year. Wow, that's almost hard to believe. I know people who write that in a day when they start a new project. Of course LoC isn't the best metric, but still.