Re: Clair Grant on VMS code base

On 4/17/2025 10:08 AM, bill wrote:

On 4/17/2025 8:56 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:

On 4/17/2025 8:50 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:

On 2025-04-17, bill <bill.gunshannon@gmail.com> wrote:

On 4/16/2025 9:29 PM, Dan Cross wrote:

Most modern code-counting tools _are_ language aware.  Whether
they do a better or worse job for each given language may be a
matter of debate, but most at least recognize different
languages and have some knowledge of their semantics.
>

I wonder how they would handle BASIC?  :-)
>
10 FOR X = 1 TO 10
20 PRINT X
30 NEXT X
>
10 FOR X = 1 TO 10:PRINT X:NEXT X
>
Is the snippet above one line of code or three?

>
3 lines of code.

>
Other replies cover what the tools actually does.
>
If we discuss what is the "right" answer, then I would
actually say 2.
>
for i := 1 to 10 do writeln(i)
>
for i := 1 to 10 do
    writeln(i)
>
for i := 1 to 10 do begin
    writeln(i)
end;
>
for i := 1 to 10 do
begin
    writeln(i)
end;
>
for(i = 1; i <= 10; i++) printf("%d\n", i);
>
for(i = 1; i <= 10; i++)
     printf("%d\n", i);
>
for(i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
     printf("%d\n", i);
}
>
for(i = 1; i <= 10; i++)
{
     printf("%d\n", i);
}
>
I would say 2 for all.
>
And unless Basic next has some subtle functionality I am not
aware of then I would say 2 for Basic as well.

 Interesting concept.  But the NEXT is a requirement of the
language, does take time to type and if it is left out does
require debugging to fix the problem.  So, if we are counting
lines in some attempt to determine the cost of writing and
maintaining the program it seems it would have to count as
a line.

Programming is more about thinking than about typing.
The thinking part is about adding two constructs:
- having i iterate from 1 to 10 => Basic FOR loop
- printing a line with i => Basic PRINT statement
The specific language syntax requirement and the developers
formatting preference is not a thinking problem (unless
the developer does not know the language well, but
that is a more general problem).
Which is why I consider it two.
But all this goes back to my original point. Counting
non-blank and non-comment lines is simple while trying to
count "right" end up in having to make dozens maybe
hundreds of decisions on how to count various constructs
in various languages. Several posts back I brought up
fluent style - not an easy one to count in my opinion.
If we instead of those few lines you provided took an entire
application and asked everybody here to count, then I would not
be surprised if everybody came up with a different number.
Which is why I have been talking about "right" answer and not
right answer.
Arne