Re:Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B
by eru on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @10:17AM
(#651024)
So write smaller programs. Use a higher level language.
Re:Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B
by kscaldef on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @01:41PM
(#651400)
You're missing the point, I think. Higher-level languages just reduce the number of lines before you start to hit the maintainability wall from poor design. So, while maybe it's >100K lines of C that's where it typically happens, it might only be 10K or 20K lines of Ruby.
Re:Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B
by eru on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @04:15PM
(#651710)
Perhaps. Though I'd rather deal with a messy 10K lines than a messy 100K. And having less code helps you keep it clean.
In a higher level language you get a lot of good design for free. For example nobody has to worry about GoTo-spaghetti-code any longer.
The first 100K lines or so are easy and somebody with talent who is fresh out of school is going to get to the finish line at least as fast as a 10 year veteran. The real test is the next 100K lines of code which the experienced designer is going to breeze through while the novice is about to learn an important lesson: Writing large programs is much harder than writing small ones.