Bill the LizardAug 13, 2025
Narrator voice: It was, in fact, 10,000 lines of bug-filled crap.
Show threadEv DelenAug 13, 2025

@lizardbill

I'm reminded of how IBM used to try to quantify coding for the purposes of promotion and bonuses:

It started with KLOC, which incentivized developers to write long, unwieldy code to juice up their LOC count.

So then it became Code Density, which incentivized developers to write a single line of inscrutably dense but functional code.

Finally they just gave up!

Yeah, so line count is not a measure of quality by any means whatsoever!

cc @pluralistic

Show threadAL

@evdelen @lizardbill @pluralistic
that sorta tracks with my experience. KLOC measurement was not as formal as this sounds but it was a thing. When I was asked about this metric I insisted on including comments. I wanted the folks writing for and with me to feel that well commented code had value.

There was also a number running around like the average programmer wrote 3 lines of code a day. Which was sorta true, we spent a lot of time in meetings. Design meetings good, mgnt meetings bad.

Aug 13, 2025 at 11:25pmWeb
Show threadcaracabeAug 14, 2025
@lizardbill @mral @pluralistic @evdelen
I worked at a place that employed a variety of metrics: lines of code, number of pull requests, number of bug tickets opened on code, etc. All used to deny pay increases in annual reviews, for all developers.
Show threadALAug 14, 2025
@caracabe @lizardbill @pluralistic @evdelen
Yea it was always about lowering pay not raising it.