This video came up on my YouTube feed recently. There was a quote that surprised me a bit: (at 8:20 ish):
- John LionsIt has often been suggested that 1,000 lines of code represents the practical limit in size for a program which is to be understood and maintained by a single individual.
(Sorry, I cant figure out how to do the attribution on my phone.)
Question: whose code are we talking about? If we’re talking about someone else’s code, I think it’s a bit optimistic; I struggle enormously with other people’s code. In fact I’d say I have a phobia of other people’s code (real world code; examples in books I’m fine with).
But if he means one’s own code, I think it’s actually pessimistic, as I’m quite able to understand tens of thousands of lines of code I wrote myself.
I am totally in awe of how people manage to write filesystems and kernels etc., where they’re constantly dealing with other people’s code.
Also, isnt it a bit worrying if we’re all using software that nobody actually fully understands?
Related: how do you overcome a fear of “other people’s code” and how do you quickly get an understanding of some big project that’s split over dozens of large source files? I feel if I can’t break through this barrier I’ll never be a programmer.
(Thanks if you’ve read this far )