Lines of code and money impact?

Yesterday was in my opinion a great success! And for the record will note that my post of winners of my awards showing appreciation for excellence in the past year in helping our world communicate through computing devices, is #1 for the last 30 days.

Our opinions do matter, and I think it's a great thing for people with the option to recognize the efforts of others that have mattered greatly to them. And if I can continue will try to open things out to include the opinions of others besides my own.

And as someone who greatly values the computer code which so few people see, or would even want to see, I think now is a great time to mention again an idea I brainstormed, where you actually pay people based on which lines of code in an application are most used when most people are actually using it.

Oh, I know, could call it--code merit pay?

First posted about this notion August of last year, where I mused about another development model, and seems to me that would be another way to recognize great coders, by recognizing great code. Where use is a dramatic indicator.

It's one of those simple ideas that the more I think about it the more I wonder if it's out there somewhere? Or have people tried it before? Is there some problem with it I don't realize?

Those who code know that who wrote the code is usually recorded in code management tools, and having some auditing function, which wouldn't have to run all the time either as that could impact performance, which showed which lines of code were most used by actual people shouldn't be that hard.

But I don't know. I like to toss out ideas. If I were building a software company would definitely see if that one could be put into it. Can imagine a development meeting where instead of endlessly lecturing about building useful, simple interfaces without lots of weird extra that no one uses, would be cheering some coders, maybe with awards, for code that is standout, while quietly talking to other developers later about their dead end code that few if any in the real world actually wish to use.

But that's just fantasy.

Plan on doing more posting in these directions though, because, well, it's my blog and I like talking these things out!

Thanks to all who showed any interest in the first annual Beyond Mundane Social Awards, as that's a big vote for them continuing. With the idea of getting bigger.


James Harris