Agreed: varied comments, personal style, and syntax can affect LOC without increasing complexity, so it's silly to make a big deal about tiny differences in program length. A 400-line program probably has the same complexity a 300-line alternative, so saving a few lines probably isn't worth making a program illegible (I'm glaring at you, RegEx). At some point, however, a big difference in size indicates a big increase in complexity. For example, a 1,000,000-line program is definitely more complex than a 100-line one.
relative complexity = round (program A LOC / program B LOC)
Measuring complexity reminds me of Fermi Problems. It's really hard to quantify accurately, so I have to make squishy comparisons based on educated guesses. My rule of thumb: if a program is more than twice as big as another, then it's significantly more complex.
Thus, if switching to a new language would cut my program in half (or more), then it's worth considering.
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Ah! Not necessarily always true.
Code is written for other people to read, so it needs to be expressive, which may mean more lines sometimes.
Agreed: varied comments, personal style, and syntax can affect LOC without increasing complexity, so it's silly to make a big deal about tiny differences in program length. A 400-line program probably has the same complexity a 300-line alternative, so saving a few lines probably isn't worth making a program illegible (I'm glaring at you, RegEx). At some point, however, a big difference in size indicates a big increase in complexity. For example, a 1,000,000-line program is definitely more complex than a 100-line one.
relative complexity = round (program A LOC / program B LOC)Measuring complexity reminds me of Fermi Problems. It's really hard to quantify accurately, so I have to make squishy comparisons based on educated guesses. My rule of thumb: if a program is more than twice as big as another, then it's significantly more complex.
Thus, if switching to a new language would cut my program in half (or more), then it's worth considering.