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1000000 lines of bad code is a bit of an exaggeration. Many (most?) programmers never write that much code in their entire careers. I've heard 10000 LOC as a mi

by kctess5 12y ago

1000000 lines of bad code is a bit of an exaggeration. Many (most?) programmers never write that much code in their entire careers. I've heard 10000 LOC as a milestone for REALLY learning a language (once you're familiar with programming in general), I'd say it's on that order of magnitude for writing non-terrible code in general.

var_explained 12y ago
It's just a figure of speech, and catchier than 10K.
StillBored 12y ago
The problem is that a lot depends on what kind of problem your solving, and whether it varies a lot. I've written ~10k lines of python (single small project). But, I'm still at the point where it seems every other line requires me to google something, and i'm sure normal python people would snicker at the result. OTOH, I've probably written close to 750 (maybe a million, aren't small companies cool!) lines of C/C++ over the last 20 years and that is probably not enough either. Although I rarely even have to think about the code, rather i'm totally working at the algorithm/interaction level and the text pops out of my fingers. I would say 10k is enough that you can put it on your resume... But, even that is probably way less than the average comp-sci graduate writes. So, I would still consider it a starting point. Especially, since reading other peoples code is just as important a skill, and that isn't something generally picked up in school, or on little weekend projects using a new language. But again, it depends on the breadth of the problems being solved. We hired a web developer a couple years ago, who in the space of about a year wrote ~150k lines of PHP and javascript, and got a _LOT_ better at it, but he solved most of the problems the same way and there was a metric ton of duplicate code, and imprecise problem solving (AKA problems solved in the most roundabout way). Over the last 2 years I've probably only written about 50k lines of PHP/Javascript but I've added about 20x the functionality he added. So, I would say that i'm better now than he was when he left, but i'm still not really that good.

by kctess5 12y ago

var_explained 12y ago

It's just a figure of speech, and catchier than 10K.

StillBored 12y ago

The problem is that a lot depends on what kind of problem your solving, and whether it varies a lot. I've written ~10k lines of python (single small project). But, I'm still at the point where it seems every other line requires me to google something, and i'm sure normal python people would snicker at the result. OTOH, I've probably written close to 750 (maybe a million, aren't small companies cool!) lines of C/C++ over the last 20 years and that is probably not enough either. Although I rarely even have to think about the code, rather i'm totally working at the algorithm/interaction level and the text pops out of my fingers. I would say 10k is enough that you can put it on your resume... But, even that is probably way less than the average comp-sci graduate writes. So, I would still consider it a starting point. Especially, since reading other peoples code is just as important a skill, and that isn't something generally picked up in school, or on little weekend projects using a new language. But again, it depends on the breadth of the problems being solved. We hired a web developer a couple years ago, who in the space of about a year wrote ~150k lines of PHP and javascript, and got a _LOT_ better at it, but he solved most of the problems the same way and there was a metric ton of duplicate code, and imprecise problem solving (AKA problems solved in the most roundabout way). Over the last 2 years I've probably only written about 50k lines of PHP/Javascript but I've added about 20x the functionality he added. So, I would say that i'm better now than he was when he left, but i'm still not really that good.