Write Less Code!

It's a sad fact that in our modern world that there's simply too much code. I can cope with the fact that my car engine is controlled by a computer, there's obviously software cooking the food in my microwave, and it wouldn't surprise me if my genetically modified cucumbers had an embedded micro controller in them. That's all fine; its not what I'm obsessing about. I'm worried about all the unnecessary code out there.

There's simply too much unnecessary code kicking around. Like weeds, these evil lines of code clog up our precious byes of storage, obfuscate our revision control histories, stubbornly get in the way of our development, and use up precious code space, choking the good code around them.

Why is there so much unnecessary code? Perhaps it's due to genetic flaws. Some people like the sound of their own voice. You've met them; you just can't shut them up. They're the kind of people you don't want to get stuck with at parties. Yada yada yada. Other people like their own code too much. They like it so much they write reams of it. { yada->yada.yada(); } Or perhaps they're the programmers with misguided managers who judge progress by how many thousands of lines of code have been written a day.

Writing lots of code does not mean that you've written lots of software. Indeed, some code can actually negatively affect the amount of software you have – it gets in the way, causes faults, and reduces the quality of the user experience. The programming equivalent of anti-matter.

Some of my best software improvement work has been by removing code. I fondly remember one time when I lopped literally thousands of lines of code out of a sprawling system, and replaced it with a mere ten lines of code. What a wonderfully smug feeling of satisfaction. I suggest you try it some time.

Why should we care?

So why is this phenomenon bad, rather than merely annoying? There are many reasons why unnecessary code is the root of all evil. Here are a few headlines:

• Writing a fresh line of code is the birth of a little lifeform. It will need to be lovingly nurtured into a useful and profitable member of software society. Then you release the product.

Over the life of the software system, that line of code needs maintenance. Each line of code costs a little. The more you write, the higher the cost. The longer they live, the higher the cost. Clearly, unnecessary code needs to meet a timely demise before it bankrupts us.

• More code means there is more to read – it makes our programs harder to comprehend. Unnecessary code can mask the purpose of a function, or hide small but important differences in otherwise similar code.

• The more code there is, the more work required to make modifications – the program is harder to modify.

• Code harbours bugs. There more code you have, the more places there are for bugs to hide.

• Duplicated code is particularly pernicious; you can fix a bug in one copy of the code and, unbeknown to you, still have another thirty two identical little bugs kicking around elsewhere.

Unnecessary code comes in many guises: unused components, dead code, pointless comments, unnecessary verbosity, and so on. In a future post, I'll look at some of these pernicious beasties in a little more detail.