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Quote about programming

These quotations pages have been floating around today. I noticed a quote by Dijkstra on the page of quotes about computer languages that really struck a chord with me:

If we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as lines produced but as lines spent.

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Selkirk (http://www.procata.com/blog/) wrote:

Dijkstra is very quotable:

The practice is pervaded by the reassuring illusion that programs are just devices like any others, the only difference admitted being that their manufacture might require a new type of craftsmen, viz. programmers. From there it is only a small step to measuring "programmer productivity" in terms of "number of lines of code produced per month". This is a very costly measuring unit because it encourages the writing of insipid code, but today I am less interested in how foolish a unit it is from even a pure business point of view. My point today is that, if we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as "lines produced" but as "lines spent": the current conventional wisdom is so foolish as to book that count on the wrong side of the ledger.

http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD10xx/EWD1036.html

∴ Selkirk | 25-May-2004 12:42am est | http://www.procata.com/blog/ | #4682

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