[timestretch]

I'd recommend reading a programming book on a topic that interests you. You'll write better code after reading it, and may be inspired too. Any simple metric such as character count or lines of code are useless. It is much more important to find something interesting to work on, then commit to learning everything necessary to complete it.

[Benferhat]

Yes, good point, training is something that you can measure quantitatively. Count the number of pages you've read, code golf [1] puzzles you've solved, etc. Good idea.

[1] http://codegolf.stackexchange.com/

[nekopa]

I've been seeing a lot about code golf recently, sounds interesting.

[Benferhat]

They're fun, easily quantifiable, and a good way to get yourself back into the coding mindset. StackExchange has a big group, I believe Reddit might as well.

[nekopa]

I find that I am reading too many great programming books at the moment. I never get to the writing better code after part, as I find an even better book to read. the simple metric is meant to only be useful in that it gets me coding. I am working on something interesting at the moment, (TAOCP) but the learning I need to do to complete the books is going to keep me (happily) tied up for years - as I am trying to make sure I completely understand everything I those books. I am just looking for something to kept me coding while I go through the process.

[timestretch]

http://projecteuler.net/ is fun. You write programs that yield an specific answer. Paste the answer in to find out if your solution is correct. I clicked around and worked on the questions that seemed the most interesting.

In terms of books, TAOCP may be a bit more general than what I was thinking of. I assumed you were getting back into programming to make something specific. What sort of software do you plan on working on? Answering that question first may help you spend your coding time more effectively.