Re^2: Samples of big projects done in Perl

Thinking about it a bit more - BIG is probably a function of language. 20,000 lines is getting BIG for Perl, but is smallish for C++. Our main code base is about 1,000,000 lines of C++, written by 3 - 6 people over about 10 years. I'd consider that to be BIG, but it is still manageable and maintainable. I suspect a Perl project of that size would be getting to be something of a handfull!

Bigness could also be measured in terms of functionality provided. A Perl equivelent of the 1e6 line C++ program (presuming it were practical) may be half the number of lines of code, but I doubt it would be anywhere near as managable as the C++. Different rules apply as code gets larger so scaling a size/functionality ratio for Perl compared with other languages is unlikely to be meaningfull as projects get BIG.

DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel

Comment on Re^2: Samples of big projects done in Perl

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Re^3: Samples of big projects done in Perl by chromatic (Archbishop) on Aug 07, 2006 at 07:03 UTC
My rough estimate (informed by Peter Scott and more or less confirmed by Nicholas Clark) is that there's about an order of magnitude difference between C and Perl SLOC. C++ can be a little better, but I doubt it's as good as two to one. I expect a million line C++ project to take perhaps 200-250k lines of Perl. It depends on the domain though.	[reply]
Re^4: Samples of big projects done in Perl by GrandFather (Saint) on Aug 07, 2006 at 09:32 UTC
Two to one was pretty much a guess, but based on the sort of C++ code I'm involved in which tends to be interacting with an instrument over USB and data analysis. I'd guess in those areas Perl wouldn't have so much advantage. On the other hand I have a modest size C++ app (maybe 2000 lines) that I'm slowly rewriting in Perl. In that case I expect to get about a five to one advantage, but it is processing email and I can use MIME::Lite to replace a swag of C++. That particular application is made for Perl and I regret not knowing Perl when I chose C++ to write the first version! DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel	[reply]
Re^3: Samples of big projects done in Perl by CountZero (Bishop) on Aug 07, 2006 at 05:55 UTC
I always wondered: Why would a 500,000 lines project in Perl be less easier to maintain than a project with 1,000,000 lines of C++? CountZero "If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler." - Conway's Law	[reply]
Re^4: Samples of big projects done in Perl by GrandFather (Saint) on Aug 07, 2006 at 06:29 UTC
Named types and strict compile time type checking are a large part of it. Member access protection is a modest part. DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel	[reply]