This article defends lines of code as a meaningful metric, challenging the common criticism that it's a useless measurement. The author cites multiple academic studies showing strong correlations between line count and established complexity metrics like cyclomatic complexity and Halstead volume. Research from 1981 to 2010 demonstrates that simple line counts predict complexity as effectively as more sophisticated measures.
Background
Lines of code has been widely criticized as a poor metric for measuring developer productivity and code quality in software engineering. Many in the industry consider it misleading and counterproductive for evaluating software development efforts.
- Source
- Lobsters
- Published
- Mar 26, 2026 at 02:01 PM
- Score
- 5.0 / 10