LOC estimates GUI developed apps

I think that I would get very, very annoyed if anyone tried to rate me by the number of lines of code I wrote in any given period. This strikes me as a quite ridiculous measure of performance and should be treated with the same contempt as the use of "graphology" as a recruiting technique.

Originally posted by mop
Source Linces of Code provide a useful measure when estimating manpower in some circles. That said, there seems to be considerable debates and opinions on the importance or lack thereof on counting lines of code that's automatically generated in a GUI environment - for instance MFC.

A direct answer is, in my experience, automatically generated code is not counted. However, I do understand that counting the lines of code written is used as a tool to evaluate man hours for a project and sometimes even performance of an individual programmer. (by God's grace I have never had to directly deal with that).

However, in my opinion, you are asking your question to the wrong audience. The majority of the people that you will find here deal directly with the code (i.e. programmers and systems analyst) and we generally do not view a line count as anything of value, especially when judging the quality of a project or in evaluation of the time needed to finish a project.

In addition, it has been my experience that the better the design of a given project, the less lines of code it will contain than if it was designed poorly. For example, my first design and alpha implementation of a project is generally larger and buggier than my final design and gold implementation.

I said all this really just to say that you asked the wrong audience, but as with Graham and Kheun, this post hit a nerve that resulted in more lines in my response. :)

Sincerely,
Kendall Russell

mop,

I apologize, I didn't mean to give the impression that the question was offensive or even that this forum was inappropriate to ask the question.

I think that your question is perfectly acceptable here, the only thing I was trying to say is that, in my opinion and only my opinion, the majority of users here would not know the answer to your question. Mainly because a coder or analyst looks at other factors instead of line count.

Your question did hit a nerve, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Atleast at my work place, "hitting a nerve" usually initiates very interesting discussions in which I learn a lot.

Sincerely,
Kendall Russell

There's an interesting article on Developer.com about this.

Developer.com article ( http://www.developer.com/mgmt/article.php/988641)

Graphology is the study of handwriting.

Good article. I've always maintained that I'm doing my best work when I'm wandering around away from the keyboard. I've been fortunate in mostly having managers who understand that.

I think rating people against the number of lines generated is not accurate at all. There are many instances that experienced programmer can deliver code that does the same thing yet shorter.

Ultimately, the success of a project depends on whether can we meet the project schedule, delivering features required by customer and lastly, delivering easily understandable and maintainable code. The last point is very important for the project to extend its useful lifespan.