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Google Is 2B Lines of Code, All in One Place

wired.com

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Re: Google Is 2B Lines of Code, All in One Place

#281

Post by bubersson »

Touche wrote: post #129
tuckerman wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think sometimes it's actually the opposite. I was able to make a breaking change to an API and update all of the callers to use the new one in a single commit. Tests would run on all the clients and, since in my workspace the server was updated simultaneously, I could be more sure it would work.

That's fine for small breaking changes like an API being renamed, but some times breaking changes require actually refactoring code which is hard/impossible to do without intimate knowledge of a codebase. Think python 2->3 or Angular 1->2. These types of changes do happen, and I bet they happen at Google. I don't think anyone is rewriting a downstream app when they make these changes. Most likely they are doing somet…

python 2->3 and angular 1->2 indeed need a different strategy and the strategy varies per case. For Angular both versions will have to be supported (basically just with different directory name) and switch most probably won't happen in terms of single applications, but by writing completely new applications on new stack. Lifespan of web application is rather short, so we can afford this.

Re: Google Is 2B Lines of Code, All in One Place

#282

Post by bubersson »

yongjik wrote: post #70

One humorous side-effect of having all that code viewable (and searchable!) by everyone was that the codebase will contain whatever typo, error, or mistake you can think of (and convert into a regular expression). I remember seeing an internal page with dozens of links for humorous searches like "interger", "funciton", or "([A-Z][a-z]+){7,} lang:java"...

I encourage everyone to search in their codebase for "1204", "521" and "265" :)

Re: Google Is 2B Lines of Code, All in One Place

#283

Post by [deleted] »

antics wrote: post #109

Just because people are talking about it: I work at MSFT, and the numbers Wired quotes for the lines of code in Windows are not even close to being correct. Not even in the same order of magnitude. Their source claims that Windows XP has ~45 million lines of code. But that was 14 years ago. The last time Windows was even in the same order of magnitude as 50 million LOC was in the Windows Vista timeframe. EDIT: And, r…

[deleted]

Re: Google Is 2B Lines of Code, All in One Place

#285

Post by jamiechong »

packetslave wrote: post #234
tajen wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I recoup with latest news: The ranking algorithm is in one repo, Chrome and Android in another, and all the rest is in Piper? What is all the rest? Gmail, Calendar, the defunct Reader, the car, Maps, and OnHub... How does that fit with Alphabet? Is Piper a cross-functional initiative of Alphabet now?

The ranking algorithm (and other restricted stuff) is in Piper, but locked down as to who can browse it, check it out, etc. There's some magic in the build system that lets you compile/link against it without needing to see it.

Who writes the magic (Piper)? Are these engineers essentially super admins?

Re: Google Is 2B Lines of Code, All in One Place

#286

Post by ArekDymalski »

dx211 wrote: post #224
ivank wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd be surprised at how many people assume these bigcos are open to doing the right thing when they're shutting down.

Hey, I've still got my complimentary MySpace zip file kicking around somewhere.

Even more. Most people don't even realize that things like FB aren't eternal.

Re: Google Is 2B Lines of Code, All in One Place

#287

Post by buffoon »

NeutronBoy wrote: post #228
buffoon wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really not that fast. The filesystem is a total dog (MFT contention) to the point that manipulating lots of small file is up to two orders of magnitude slower than ext4. This is made bearable thanks to SSDs being on the market. Also the amount of friction getting stuff built and running and maintaining it is detrimental to general productivity meaning you piss execution time out of the window regularly just fixi…

Note: windows programmer for 19 years now. Only because of the cash. You know why there's cash? Because Windows works for a lot of people.

I disagree. It isn't that it works well but merely that it is there. In fact the majority of Windows networks both corporate and small business I can safely say that it barely works and is usually a mismanaged unpatched mess or filled with crapware. Occasionally there's a nice tight network (our operations guys run a tight ship which is cool) but the general case is a pit of incompetence.

The mantra among the consults I've met in the UK is if you're charging by the hour, do it in .Net on Windows. If you're charging a fixed rate, use Linux and Python.

I'm not suggesting there is anything better for an end user but I'm pointing out that it doesn't work well enough.

I still use it however and have a fondness. The accumulated knowledge of fixes is incredibly valuable.

Re: Google Is 2B Lines of Code, All in One Place

#289

Post by buffoon »

thetruthseeker1 wrote: post #275
archimedespi wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least you don't ever really need to defragment ext4, unlike NTFS.

Can you solve all the problems in ext4 that NTFS claims to solve? No you cant. I am not saying either of the systems is perfect nor either of them is horrible. They are perfect for the use cases they are designed for. If somebody had a file system structure that was unusual(say lots of small files) to NTFS, I think it was his mistake in treating it as a black box.

The problem is that a large number of small files is a very common use case. Even Windows itself consists of lots of small files i.e. the source code and WinSxS.

It should handle general scenarios consistently. We've had a few minor versions of NTFS and now ReFS. ReFS should solve this but it doesn't as it's a copy and paste of the NTFS code initially rather than a complete reengineering effort.

Re: Google Is 2B Lines of Code, All in One Place

#290

Post by hirsin »

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #256
branchless wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd have to disagree with this. First the baseline: windows is very slow. Second I found later versions slower. Third (and most maddening) every version of windows I've ever used has gotten slower over time (including not installing new s/w and defragmenting).

People defrag modern SSDs?

They better not. Doesn't improve anything and certainly wears it down. Hopefully the defrag tool recognizes an SSD and refuses to do it though.
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