Whenever I write about a piece of software, I often include the number of files and lines of source code that compose that software. I usually use the notation (x files, y LOC).
Generated code
I write about Software Factory (SF) and code generation. I enjoy code generation because it is really cool and saves me tons of work.
I spent decades working on this, and I probably wrote one million lines of code or even more. Not all of it was good. Not all of it was consistent. But I had to key in all of them over all those years.
However, I’m at a point where I start getting back the efforts I have put in. I probably generate about 80% of the code I use now. That is a lot of “free” code.
Return On Investment
This is important because LOC is how I calculate my ROI on all the code that I write. It is a measure of what I got back from writing the Software Factory in the first place.
Every time I generate 100k LOC that is 100k LOC, I don’t have to write. And I can calculate my velocity based on LOC / week.
It is also a sign of quality. When I write solutions, I make extra efforts to ensure that the generated code is of higher quality. And, I know that it will generate in a much more consistent way than it ever would if I had to write it manually.
So, is it a success?
MY goal is to eventually generate close to 100% of my code. But even before that, I can definitely say that it is a success.
I’ve spent most of my efforts writing the Software Factory so far. While the core SF engine (486 files, 18819 LOC) is 95% manually coded, most of everything else was generated:
- 13 micro-services (3034 files, 90992 LOC);
- 39 Angular client libraries, 39 .net client libraries (1894 files, 89696 LOC);
- and 2 front-end applications of (1539 files, 92573 LOC).
That is a total of 6467 files and 273261 LOC. All usable code that was created in the last 6 months. How long would it take to write all this manually? Probably a lot longer…
This version of the Software Factory is not complete. I still have to write 2 more front-end applications. But with the help from the Software Factory (previous version), I should be able to take this in a couple of weeks,
Velocity! Velocity! Velocity!
I spent the last 6 months investing in velocity. With this new version of the Software Factory, I will have much greater flexibility and abilities. I will be able to start focusing on other aspects of code and work on creating new products and product lines.
The following 6 months will be all about velocity, and I plan on more than 20x the number of LOC write. Can I make it? I don’t doubt it for a second…
Development Log 