Code Quality In Open and Closed Source Kernels

Diomidis Spinellis writes "Earlier today I presented at the 30th International Conference on Software Engineering a research paper comparing the code quality of Linux, Windows (its research kernel distribution), OpenSolaris, and FreeBSD. For the comparison I parsed multiple configurations of these systems (more than ten million lines) and stored the results in four databases, where I could run SQL queries on them. This amounted to 8GB of data, 160 million records. (I've made the databases and the SQL queries available online.) The areas I examined were file organization, code structure, code style, preprocessing, and data organization. To my surprise there was no clear winner or loser, but there were interesting differences in specific areas. As the summary concludes: '..the structure and internal quality attributes of a working, non-trivial software artifact will represent first and foremost the engineering requirements of its construction, with the influence of process being marginal, if any.'"

Comments

It's obvious

[Number6.2]

That you have neither capitalized on your shared synergies, nor have you recovered your cherished paradigms.

Oh. Wait. This is about propeller-head stuff rather than management stuff. Lemme get my "Handbook of postmodern buzz words"...

Slashbots are teh 13 year olds blah blah blah

[spun]

Well, you lose your bet, been over five minutes and no anti Microsoft screeds let alone spelling it with a $.

Just so everyone understands, the tactic used here is known as "Poisoning the well." The idea is the discredit an argument's source before the argument is presented. Here, our AC friend is trying to ward off criticism of Microsoft by insinuating that anyone who does so is a 13 year old "Slashbot."

The fallacy is in the fact that even someone who is 13 and often goes along with the Slashdot zeitgeist may still have legitimate criticisms of Microsoft, such as the fact that Microsoft sucks giant hairy donkey balls.

Re:KLOCs?

[getto man d]

Exactly. Automation excludes creativity. If it were that easy I could just do the following:

writeGoodCode(int numberOfLines, float ouncesOfCoffeeConsumed)

No Clear Winner, but...

[rthille]

Statements like this: "Indeed the longest header file (WRK's winerror.h) at 27,000 lines lumps together error messages from 30 different areas; most of which are not related to the Windows kernel." Allow me to feel smug in my anti-Windows bias :-)