a dijkstra quote [1] i've just stumbled upon and would like to share:
The practice is pervaded by the reassuring illusion that programs are
just devices like any others, the only difference admitted being that
their manufacture might require a new type of craftsmen, viz.
programmers. From there it is only a small step to measuring
"programmer productivity" in terms of "number of lines of code
produced per month". This is a very costly measuring unit because it
encourages the writing of insipid code, but today I am less interested
in how foolish a unit it is from even a pure business point of view.
My point today is that, if we wish to count lines of code, we should
not regard them as "lines produced" but as "lines spent": the current
conventional wisdom is so foolish as to book that count on the wrong
side of the ledger.
[1]: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD10xx/EWD1036.html
Received on Wed May 07 2008 - 18:20:24 UTC
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