[merrickread]

My Dad always tells me he flat out does not understand what I do. He respects it, knows it's challenging and fun, but just doesn't get it.

I've sent this to him -- he's about 1/4 of the way through and thoroughly enjoying it.

This is a very fun read that's worth leafing through

[cordite]

My father sent a small comment chain to me as well on a topic like this on one of his blog posts.

<First guy> June 3, 2015 at 10:12 am I think software developers like to impress people with how many lines of code they can write.

<Second guy> June 3, 2015 at 3:31 pm That is not true. A good day is when you leave the office with more powerful software, but fewer lines of code.

<First guy> June 4, 2015 at 4:31 am So why is software always getting bigger ? Is it because the marketing people want to add new features all the time ? Does this even apply to free software like browsers and email clients ?

-----

Personally, I like writing less code, or reducing code to less code. Less to think about.

[circlefavshape]

My personal favourite is talking The Business out of things. Solving issues without any coding at all!

[idohealth]

Sure, it is a problem. But if you reboot the server everyday, it will not become a problem.

No coding at all required.

[lucozade]

Many years ago I managed to convince my management that, if they had to use deltaLOC as a performance metric, that they at least use abs(deltaLoC).

I then spent the next year cutting huge chunks of crap out of a C++ application that I had inherited.

Was a most satisfying experience.

[meric]

Hmm, shouldn't it be Sum(abs(deltaLoC per change))? Otherwise if you added 50 lines a day and removed 50, your abs(deltaLoC) will be 0.

[zeckalpha]

Let's add some whitespace to the README. Let's remove some whitespace from the README. Let's add some whitespace to the README.

[jeffreyrogers]

> Does this even apply to free software like browsers and email clients ?

The more I get involved in open source the more I think most code bloat is due to people needing their egos validated by getting a commit into a project, regardless of whether the commit is all that useful or not.

[johnny22]

I've been involved for a long time, and it sure doesn't seem that way to me. Lots of that "code bloat" is simply making things portable across compilers, interpreters, operating systems and languages.

[tommorris]

Same. I sent this to my boyfriend yesterday: he's trying to learn programming (I'm trying to teach him Python; in response, I'm trying to learn some foreign languages) and I'm hoping that this gives him the lay of the land of how our strange world works.

[mangeletti]

Wow, I did the exact same thing, for exactly the same reason. My dad called me a few hours later and said, "I finished the 38000 word article you sent.". I checked and he wasn't far off; it's around 29000 words.

[jweather]

The certificate of participation at the end claims it's 38,000 words...

[mangeletti]

Oh that's where he got the number. I read it on mobile, so I didn't notice that.