> I responded by pointing out that quality of code is not related
> to lines of code, and in fact it's usually inversely related. I
> commented that it would be interesting to do a comparison on that
> basis (independent analysis of function points of both Windows and
> Linux, vs lines of code) and see whose code quality is better.
Exactly what do you consider a "function point"?
Some years back, I did some research on programmer productivity for
ITT's Advanced Technology Center. It is generally said that each step of
the analysis, design, code, debug, maintain process has a ten fold
influence on the next step. That is a total influence of 1:10,000 at the
point of shipping, and 100,000 at the point of the next "maintenance
release". (Small wonder Yourdon says 60 percent of the DP projects fail!)
It is very true, as you said, that the quality is not a function of
lines of code. I would also say that quality is not a function of the
number of function points. A poorly designed system will need more
function points than one that has been well designed. And as one develops
the system, it is probably that additional function points will have to be
added to "catch" the failures of other function points, distorting the
design and bloating the function point and line counts.
Since programmer productivity is about 2,500 lines of code per month,
a cleaner design with less code will be faster to implement. The number
of bugs in a system is also a function of the number of lines of code, so
the bug count should be lower. Speed is often related to lines of code,
so that should go up. And maintenance is usually easier too as one
reduces the number of lines of code. Since a human mind can only
comprehends so much well, and problems increase as the quantity of "stuff"
a person has to remember while working on a system, reducing the number of
lines of code can substantially reduce the bug count out of proportion to
the number of lines of code.
People who do something for an income are generally interested in the
income, and "getting it out the door". People who do something because
they enjoy it are interested in the craftsmanship of their own work, and
tend to implement improvements as they see them without such high regards
for deadlines.
So assuming Woodnose95 uses about average programmers, call it 5 on
the scale; yielding 5 * 5 * 5 * 5, or 625, not including a few maintenance
steps.
The self-selected programmers of Linux are probably between 8 and 10
on the scale. Let us say 8 for the sake of being conservative. 8 * 8 * 8
* 8 or 4,096; 6.55 times "better". Not a bad improvement! Even if we take
execution speeds as a rough indication of "quality", we find that Linux is
two to five times better than Woodnose95.
Now add to that, the maintenance re-work, etc. and I think the
ratio will be much higher in favor of Linux, because it started as a
cleaner design, with multi-tasking and all that built in at the start, not
added on as a heavy shell atop a flawed DOS.
I rather think MS should spend some more time carving that wooden
nose out of something more suitable. Ivory, maybe?
As for me, I like Linux not so much because of "quality", but because
it encourages one to build custom applications out of small pieces of
code. I don't have to be a full fledged Woodnose developer to write code
that works on Linux. And since Linux comes with a web server, perl, etc.,
instead of writing a fancy front end processor, I can simply use web
screens as interfaces, not only simplifying my task, but giving me a
program that can be used all over the world via the web.
- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----------------------------
-------- MS asks "Where do you want to go?" -------
------- Linux asks "What do you want to do?" ------
-- It is doers, not goers, who built this world! --
--------- Member: http://www.svlug.org/ -----------
____________________________________________________________________
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Join The Web Consultants Association : Register on our web site Now
Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants
If you lose the instructions All subscription/unsubscribing can be done
directly from our website for all our lists.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
