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   mcc (mcc@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 23-Nov-2024 16:01:18 JST mcc

   I think 1000 lines of code is the perfect length for a computer program

   • Embed this notice
     Chris Hanson (eschaton@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 23-Nov-2024 16:01:16 JST Chris Hanson

     in reply to

     • David

     @mcc @david42 Have you played with classic Smalltalk-80 or early Squeak? That was from back in the day when the average Smalltalk method length was something like 5-6 lines, and a lot of people felt the system was very tractable like that.

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
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     Chris Hanson (eschaton@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 23-Nov-2024 16:01:16 JST Chris Hanson

     in reply to

     • David

     @mcc @david42 One of the places where I think Lisp Machines lose is that despite all having OOP facilities as well as decent compilers, they still tended to huge flexible functions rather than super-aggressive decomposition.

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     mcc (mcc@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 23-Nov-2024 16:01:17 JST mcc

     in reply to

     • David

     @david42 if the library provides a complete enough encapsulation layer you don't have to think about it, it's a win. if i wound up forking the library and submitting bugfixes and feature improvements, it's still a win because i can think in a simpler model at the toplevel 1000-line program but less of one.

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
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     mcc (mcc@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 23-Nov-2024 16:01:17 JST mcc

     in reply to

     • David

     @david42 a large system made of many interacting components, each of which is no more than 1000 lines, could be very satisfying to work with.

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
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     David (david42@mastodon.online)'s status on Saturday, 23-Nov-2024 16:01:18 JST David

     in reply to

     @mcc how does programming language expressiveness need to improve in order for (almost all) programs to be 1000 lines or less? What counts as the limited line-count program itself, e.g. how do libraries factor in?

     I mean this in the sense of curiosity. I have a programming language innovation background and I know that languages could be many times better than they are.

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.