Comments on: The Dominance of Small Code Contributions http://dirkriehle.com/2008/09/23/the-dominance-of-small-code-contributions/ Dirk Riehle's blog about everything computer science, applied and more Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:23:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Michael Nielsen » Biweekly links for 01/30/2009 http://dirkriehle.com/2008/09/23/the-dominance-of-small-code-contributions/#comment-215 Michael Nielsen » Biweekly links for 01/30/2009 Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:19:21 +0000 http://www.riehle.org/?p=324#comment-215 [...] The Dominance of Small Code Contributions [...] [...] The Dominance of Small Code Contributions [...]

]]> By: Dirk Riehle http://dirkriehle.com/2008/09/23/the-dominance-of-small-code-contributions/#comment-214 Dirk Riehle Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:31:47 +0000 http://www.riehle.org/?p=324#comment-214 Ralph Johnson commented on <a href="http://pulse.plaxo.com/pulse/events/show/92292102#addComment" rel="nofollow">Plaxo Pulse</a> but I prefer to discuss it here :-) From Ralph: "An interesting question is what percent of the code comes from commits of 100 lines or less. Look only at the last commit that modified a line. Suppose that every line of code in Linux was tagged with the number of lines in the last commit that touched it. What fraction of the lines would have a label less than 10? Less than 100?" Short answer, well more of a question: You are asking not about the percentage of activity that small commits represent but the total amount of work? I'm pretty sure we can calculate that but wouldn't it just be the integral of the commit size distribution? (And then take the 1-100 SLoC range percentage of the total distribution?) Ralph Johnson commented on Plaxo Pulse but I prefer to discuss it here :-)

From Ralph: “An interesting question is what percent of the code comes from commits of 100 lines or less. Look only at the last commit that modified a line. Suppose that every line of code in Linux was tagged with the number of lines in the last commit that touched it. What fraction of the lines would have a label less than 10? Less than 100?”

Short answer, well more of a question: You are asking not about the percentage of activity that small commits represent but the total amount of work? I’m pretty sure we can calculate that but wouldn’t it just be the integral of the commit size distribution? (And then take the 1-100 SLoC range percentage of the total distribution?)

]]> By: Bread and Circuits » Big wins come from thinking small http://dirkriehle.com/2008/09/23/the-dominance-of-small-code-contributions/#comment-213 Bread and Circuits » Big wins come from thinking small Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:14:23 +0000 http://www.riehle.org/?p=324#comment-213 [...] when Chris pointed me to another FSOSS alumni, Dirk Riele of SAP Labs, who has just published a study that [...] [...] when Chris pointed me to another FSOSS alumni, Dirk Riele of SAP Labs, who has just published a study that [...]

]]> By: Dirk Riehle http://dirkriehle.com/2008/09/23/the-dominance-of-small-code-contributions/#comment-212 Dirk Riehle Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:45:14 +0000 http://www.riehle.org/?p=324#comment-212 That's an important point---speaks to enabling the wisdom of the crowds---i.e. you want diversity in your innovation and input. That’s an important point—speaks to enabling the wisdom of the crowds—i.e. you want diversity in your innovation and input.

]]> By: Morten Blaabjerg http://dirkriehle.com/2008/09/23/the-dominance-of-small-code-contributions/#comment-211 Morten Blaabjerg Wed, 24 Sep 2008 08:48:01 +0000 http://www.riehle.org/?p=324#comment-211 Your study nicely confirms everything Clay Shirky says about power law distributions in "Here Comes Everybody". The results are not surprising - they confirm everything known from other such open social systems, such as those Shirky gives a look in his book - f. ex. photo distributions on Flickr tagged "mermaid parade" or "Iraq". An important point about power law distributions (as Shirky also notes in the book) is that the one line code change no. 517 may also be the one which closes a vital security hole. So "closed" systems, such as companies which can only hire so many people, may lose out from a lot of vital input and value, even if it seems at a glance only 20% of contributors are doing the major parts of the work being done. Your study nicely confirms everything Clay Shirky says about power law distributions in “Here Comes Everybody”. The results are not surprising – they confirm everything known from other such open social systems, such as those Shirky gives a look in his book – f. ex. photo distributions on Flickr tagged “mermaid parade” or “Iraq”.

An important point about power law distributions (as Shirky also notes in the book) is that the one line code change no. 517 may also be the one which closes a vital security hole. So “closed” systems, such as companies which can only hire so many people, may lose out from a lot of vital input and value, even if it seems at a glance only 20% of contributors are doing the major parts of the work being done.

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