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You only get 1,000 lines of code a week

onebigfluke.com

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Re: You only get 1,000 lines of code a week

#21

Post by polack »

mrcsparker wrote: post #9
kabouseng wrote: post #6

It depends on what career trajectory a senior developer is. If he is destined to become a specialist, then this article is spot on. If instead he dreams of becomming a manager or architect, then he would actually not be coding the most complicated parts, and make sure to keep himself off the critical path of the project, so as to free up his time, so he can spend his time helping his colleagues and clearing the rocks…

For a manager, I agree. An architect should write the most complicated, not the least complicated, part of code. This is assuming that the architect is the most experienced developer on the team. This doesn't include paper architects, which are pretty much salespeople. I would like to hear other people's thoughts on this - this is the way that I have always handled projects.

I see the architect role in software development pretty much the same as a architect of a building. He/she will be in charge of the big picture and let others do most of the implementation and deal with small details, unless it's a crucial detail that the construction workers/developers needs help on.

Re: You only get 1,000 lines of code a week

#22

Post by ibz »

This is spot on, except I would take it a bit further. You can only accomplish X things in a week. Now, what do you choose to do with your life? If you are writing code ask yourself what is the purpose of that? What is the goal of that app? How are you making the world a better place? Or, as he puts it, isn't there anything else you could be doing that nobody else can, and that would indeed make the world a better place? Could be coding on another project, could be not even coding. But anyway, choose wisely what you do with your life.

Re: You only get 1,000 lines of code a week

#23

Post by pjc50 »

methyl wrote: post #3

Actually 1,000 lines of code a week is quite a lot. Of course it depends on language / technology stack, I'm speaking from Rails / JavaScript programmer point of view.

It very much depends on whether it's new code or maintenance mode as well. I've managed to put out 2kloc of MFC C++ over the past two weeks for an internal test app, but that's very unusual and my maintenance work is more like 100 loc a week.

I think the most extreme of this was a colleague of mine years ago who spent two weeks bug-hunting and eventually removed a single wrong minus sign. Vital work that this metric is completely useless for.

Re: You only get 1,000 lines of code a week

#24

Post by coldnebo »

phkahler wrote: post #7
methyl wrote: post #3

Actually 1,000 lines of code a week is quite a lot. Of course it depends on language / technology stack, I'm speaking from Rails / JavaScript programmer point of view.

Yes. And this: "Your 1,000 lines should be the essential core that enables a team of programmers to write another 10,000 lines effortlessly." If you're writing critical core stuff like that, you better spend a lot more than a week on it. I can't imagine working on anything where the team regularly writes 10,000 lines a week. Prototypes by one person can easily grow at 1kLOC per week for a short time, but that's a spe…

I read the essence of that statement without the same time constraint applied to it. i.e. the type of 1000 lines you should be working on each week is the type (systems code) that enables (application) programmers to write the rest of their code effortlessly.

e.g. Rails core (system) vs people who use Rails (applications).

Re: You only get 1,000 lines of code a week

#25

Post by jpfr »

methyl wrote: post #3

Actually 1,000 lines of code a week is quite a lot. Of course it depends on language / technology stack, I'm speaking from Rails / JavaScript programmer point of view.

It's easy to change/add 1000 lines in a week.

However, most code is rewritten/refactored many times. So only little of what you write in any week will be the _final code_.

Re: You only get 1,000 lines of code a week

#27

Post by Bahamut »

phkahler wrote: post #7
methyl wrote: post #3

Actually 1,000 lines of code a week is quite a lot. Of course it depends on language / technology stack, I'm speaking from Rails / JavaScript programmer point of view.

Yes. And this: "Your 1,000 lines should be the essential core that enables a team of programmers to write another 10,000 lines effortlessly." If you're writing critical core stuff like that, you better spend a lot more than a week on it. I can't imagine working on anything where the team regularly writes 10,000 lines a week. Prototypes by one person can easily grow at 1kLOC per week for a short time, but that's a spe…

I'm a senior engineer who has written over 150k loc the past month :( . I have had to tackle some difficult problems that allowed the other engineers to keep moving.

My workaround so far has been to do most of the critical work during after hours or before everyone comes in the office, since my primary role during regular hours is to keep everyone unblocked. It isn't sustainable though, and I only do it at the moment because we are in crunch mode - 'tis the startup life.

Re: You only get 1,000 lines of code a week

#28

Post by GuiA »

Bahamut wrote: post #27
phkahler wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. And this: "Your 1,000 lines should be the essential core that enables a team of programmers to write another 10,000 lines effortlessly." If you're writing critical core stuff like that, you better spend a lot more than a week on it. I can't imagine working on anything where the team regularly writes 10,000 lines a week. Prototypes by one person can easily grow at 1kLOC per week for a short time, but that's a spe…

I'm a senior engineer who has written over 150k loc the past month :( . I have had to tackle some difficult problems that allowed the other engineers to keep moving. My workaround so far has been to do most of the critical work during after hours or before everyone comes in the office, since my primary role during regular hours is to keep everyone unblocked. It isn't sustainable though, and I only do it at the moment…

150 000 lines of code / (10 hours * 5 days * 4 weeks) = a sustained 750 lines of code an hour? That's impressive. Can you share a bit more about how you manage to achieve such productivity for those of us who aspire to be like that?

Re: You only get 1,000 lines of code a week

#29

Post by cowsandmilk »

GuiA wrote: post #28
Bahamut wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a senior engineer who has written over 150k loc the past month :( . I have had to tackle some difficult problems that allowed the other engineers to keep moving. My workaround so far has been to do most of the critical work during after hours or before everyone comes in the office, since my primary role during regular hours is to keep everyone unblocked. It isn't sustainable though, and I only do it at the moment…

150 000 lines of code / (10 hours * 5 days * 4 weeks) = a sustained 750 lines of code an hour? That's impressive. Can you share a bit more about how you manage to achieve such productivity for those of us who aspire to be like that?

I don't think he was suggesting you aspire to that.

And both 10 hours and 5 days are probably underestimates of the time he is spending.

Re: You only get 1,000 lines of code a week

#30

Post by Kiro »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #19
eterm wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd struggle to think in a job which required 25 lines an hour ever, let alone constantly for 8 hours/day! I don't think I've ever written more than a few hundred LOC in a week.

What kind of projects do you work on? I'm sure the experience differs a lot between people working on important, complex legacy projects, and people developing consumer mobile apps for photo sharing etc.

For me working on complex legacy projects means even less LoC since you're so afraid of breaking stuff.
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