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My Dad always tells me he flat out does not understand what I do. He respects it, knows it's challenging and fun, but just doesn't get it. I've sent this to hi

My Dad always tells me he flat out does not understand what I do. He respects it, knows it's challenging and fun, but just doesn't get it. I've sent this to him -- he's about 1/4 of the way through and thoroughly enjoying it. This is a very fun read that's worth leafing through

cordite 11y ago
My father sent a small comment chain to me as well on a topic like this on one of his blog posts. <First guy> June 3, 2015 at 10:12 am I think software developers like to impress people with how many lines of code they can write. <Second guy> June 3, 2015 at 3:31 pm That is not true. A good day is when you leave the office with more powerful software, but fewer lines of code. <First guy> June 4, 2015 at 4:31 am So why is software always getting bigger ? Is it because the marketing people want to add new features all the time ? Does this even apply to free software like browsers and email clients ? ----- Personally, I like writing less code, or reducing code to less code. Less to think about.
- circlefavshape 11y ago
  My personal favourite is talking The Business out of things. Solving issues without any coding at all!
  - idohealth 11y ago
    Sure, it is a problem. But if you reboot the server everyday, it will not become a problem. No coding at all required.
- jeffreyrogers 11y ago
  > Does this even apply to free software like browsers and email clients ? The more I get involved in open source the more I think most code bloat is due to people needing their egos validated by getting a commit into a project, regardless of whether the commit is all that useful or not.
  - johnny22 11y ago
    I've been involved for a long time, and it sure doesn't seem that way to me. Lots of that "code bloat" is simply making things portable across compilers, interpreters, operating systems and languages.
- lucozade 11y ago
  Many years ago I managed to convince my management that, if they had to use deltaLOC as a performance metric, that they at least use abs(deltaLoC). I then spent the next year cutting huge chunks of crap out of a C++ application that I had inherited. Was a most satisfying experience.
  - meric 11y ago
    Hmm, shouldn't it be Sum(abs(deltaLoC per change))? Otherwise if you added 50 lines a day and removed 50, your abs(deltaLoC) will be 0.
    - zeckalpha 11y ago
      Let's add some whitespace to the README. Let's remove some whitespace from the README. Let's add some whitespace to the README.
mangeletti 11y ago
Wow, I did the exact same thing, for exactly the same reason. My dad called me a few hours later and said, "I finished the 38000 word article you sent.". I checked and he wasn't far off; it's around 29000 words.
- jweather 11y ago
  The certificate of participation at the end claims it's 38,000 words...
  - mangeletti 11y ago
    Oh that's where he got the number. I read it on mobile, so I didn't notice that.
tommorris 11y ago
Same. I sent this to my boyfriend yesterday: he's trying to learn programming (I'm trying to teach him Python; in response, I'm trying to learn some foreign languages) and I'm hoping that this gives him the lay of the land of how our strange world works.

cordite 11y ago

My father sent a small comment chain to me as well on a topic like this on one of his blog posts. <First guy> June 3, 2015 at 10:12 am I think software developers like to impress people with how many lines of code they can write. <Second guy> June 3, 2015 at 3:31 pm That is not true. A good day is when you leave the office with more powerful software, but fewer lines of code. <First guy> June 4, 2015 at 4:31 am So why is software always getting bigger ? Is it because the marketing people want to add new features all the time ? Does this even apply to free software like browsers and email clients ? ----- Personally, I like writing less code, or reducing code to less code. Less to think about.

circlefavshape 11y ago
My personal favourite is talking The Business out of things. Solving issues without any coding at all!
- idohealth 11y ago
  Sure, it is a problem. But if you reboot the server everyday, it will not become a problem. No coding at all required.
jeffreyrogers 11y ago
> Does this even apply to free software like browsers and email clients ? The more I get involved in open source the more I think most code bloat is due to people needing their egos validated by getting a commit into a project, regardless of whether the commit is all that useful or not.
- johnny22 11y ago
  I've been involved for a long time, and it sure doesn't seem that way to me. Lots of that "code bloat" is simply making things portable across compilers, interpreters, operating systems and languages.
lucozade 11y ago
Many years ago I managed to convince my management that, if they had to use deltaLOC as a performance metric, that they at least use abs(deltaLoC). I then spent the next year cutting huge chunks of crap out of a C++ application that I had inherited. Was a most satisfying experience.
- meric 11y ago
  Hmm, shouldn't it be Sum(abs(deltaLoC per change))? Otherwise if you added 50 lines a day and removed 50, your abs(deltaLoC) will be 0.
  - zeckalpha 11y ago
    Let's add some whitespace to the README. Let's remove some whitespace from the README. Let's add some whitespace to the README.

mangeletti 11y ago

Wow, I did the exact same thing, for exactly the same reason. My dad called me a few hours later and said, "I finished the 38000 word article you sent.". I checked and he wasn't far off; it's around 29000 words.

jweather 11y ago
The certificate of participation at the end claims it's 38,000 words...
- mangeletti 11y ago
  Oh that's where he got the number. I read it on mobile, so I didn't notice that.

tommorris 11y ago

Same. I sent this to my boyfriend yesterday: he's trying to learn programming (I'm trying to teach him Python; in response, I'm trying to learn some foreign languages) and I'm hoping that this gives him the lay of the land of how our strange world works.