Name: Linus Torvalds (torvalds@linux-foundation.org) 6/8/10anon2 (anon@anons.com) on 6/8/10 wrote:
>But productivity is a difference thing when it comes to kernel code. Linux devs are working practically for free. So the same amount of budget can get you whole lot work done. Actually, this is wrong.People working for free still doesn't mean that it's fine to make the work take more effort - people still work for other compensation, and not feeling excessively
frustrated about the tools (including language) and getting productive work done is a big issue. So if a language change were to make people much more productive, that would be a good thing regardless of how much people end up getting paid. It's definitely not about the money.But the thing is, "lines of code" isn't even remotely close to being a measure of productivity, or even the gating issue. The gating issue in any large project is pretty much all about (a) getting the top people and (b) communication. In the kernel, we have roughly a thousand people being attributed for each and every kernel release (at about three months apart). Now, there's a long tail, and
the hundred (or even fifty) top contributors do most of the bulk work, but even then, the biggest issue that I end up worrying about is not even the code, but the "flow" of code and development. For example, I personally don't even write much code any more, and haven't for years. I mainly merge (and to a large degree - don't merge: a large portion of what
I do is telling people "No, I won't take this, because of xyz". Even if rejection ends up being the rare case, it's actually the main reason for me existing. Anybody can say "yes". Somebody needs to say "no"). Read more: Real world technologies
>But productivity is a difference thing when it comes to kernel code. Linux devs are working practically for free. So the same amount of budget can get you whole lot work done. Actually, this is wrong.People working for free still doesn't mean that it's fine to make the work take more effort - people still work for other compensation, and not feeling excessively
frustrated about the tools (including language) and getting productive work done is a big issue. So if a language change were to make people much more productive, that would be a good thing regardless of how much people end up getting paid. It's definitely not about the money.But the thing is, "lines of code" isn't even remotely close to being a measure of productivity, or even the gating issue. The gating issue in any large project is pretty much all about (a) getting the top people and (b) communication. In the kernel, we have roughly a thousand people being attributed for each and every kernel release (at about three months apart). Now, there's a long tail, and
the hundred (or even fifty) top contributors do most of the bulk work, but even then, the biggest issue that I end up worrying about is not even the code, but the "flow" of code and development. For example, I personally don't even write much code any more, and haven't for years. I mainly merge (and to a large degree - don't merge: a large portion of what
I do is telling people "No, I won't take this, because of xyz". Even if rejection ends up being the rare case, it's actually the main reason for me existing. Anybody can say "yes". Somebody needs to say "no"). Read more: Real world technologies
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