From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_DATE, MSGID_SHORT autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Xref: utzoo comp.lang.ada:5801 comp.lang.c++:14323 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!aria!dumbcat!marc From: marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us (Marco S Hyman) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c++ Subject: Re: chief programmer team organizations was (c++ vs ada results) Message-ID: <1066@dumbcat.sf.ca.us> Date: 24 Jun 91 04:00:38 GMT References: <1991Jun20.143535.27176@software.org> <25587@well.sf.ca.us> <1991Jun23.032353.8718@netcom.COM> Followup-To: comp.lang.ada Organization: MH Software, Hayward, CA. List-Id: In article <1991Jun23.032353.8718@netcom.COM> jls@netcom.COM (Jim Showalter) writes: > Tommyrot! How on earth is a single human being going to write "most", > or, for that matter, even a FRACTION, of the code on a project of > significant size? I'm talking here of things like the multi-MILLION > line FAA rewrite of the U.S. air traffic control system. If one can imagine the system then one can build the system, just a little slower than two, or three. But in any case faster than 100. Every new person adds to the communications burden and increases the chance of a mis-communication causing something to be misunderstood. Misunderstandings lead to defects and system failures. I'd guess seven would be the top end, providing you have the right seven. Three seems to be a good number in practice. Charles Moore once said at a conference (I think it was Software Development '89) that he'd have no problem with SDI providing he was the one writing the software. (In forth?) And yes, I was involved in a project where three re-designed and wrote a system originally done by a group of 20 -- faster, with less problems, to the customers greater satisfaction, etc. And how many lines of code is TeX, Metafont, etc. Do you count the documentation? But size isn't the issue here. Quality is. If the customer wants it bad, that's how he's going to get it. // marc -- // home: marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us pacbell!dumbcat!marc // work: marc@ascend.com uunet!aria!marc