Talking efficiency

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Talking efficiency
by Eric Laffoon on Thursday 25/Mar/2004, @10:49

I haven't had anything to do with MS since I walked away from their sad excuse for software in the mid 90s. Back then I suspected that they actually added complexity to their coding requirements as a means of raising the barrier of entry for competition. Of course with Gates saying "everything is an object" and evidence I've been seeing for years indicating encapsulation and reuse are things they may discover at some later date it's possible there is another explanation.

The thing that is really fascinating here to me is the fundamental aspect of programmer efficiency. I remember at the advent of C++ the big point that was being made was that you could do "more in a line of code" and thus reduce the number of lines of code to do a task, producing more results from a programmer who is going to produce x lines of code in a day.

So if this example is effectively the same, as it appears to be, then using Qt not only provides cross platform benefits (which was and still should be the holy grail in programming) and a lesser level of frustration, but it is hugely more efficient. I expected it to be more efficient, but this example is remarkable... 60 lines compared to 200 is a savings of 70% and well worth while for the MS example. 11 lines compared to 60 lines is a savings of 81.67% over the XAML example and 94.5% over the raw code example!

That would seem to indicate that in the type of work done in the example a developer would be half way through his sixth dialog with the same number of lines of code as the XAML developer used to finish his first. Given that there is more than just coding here it is likely less efficient, but should still realize a result for that task of being at least twice as efficient. That's remarkable!

I continue to think that the MS advantage is held in place by a thread (held by bullies) and that there is a good reason they fear real competetition. How long can the emperor have no clothes?

Related Links

·   Articles on Qt
·   Also by Eric Laffoon
·   Contact author

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