… from the comments in index.php of the recently leaked Facebook source code, an entertaining way to start off your week. What I find interesting is the first responses from the blogosphere are about whether Facebook’s security problems are PHP-related or programmer-related. D-uhhhhhh, look at the code chaps, even OScommerce or phpAdsNews source looks sophisticated compared to this.
I wonder what value the market places on whether a web app is designed in a non-amateur way or not? Of course Facebook is a hot property with its 40M+ user accounts and great usability, but now that it is common knowledge what kind of code is holding the thing together …
Does code quality really matter in the big picture?
August 13th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
I’d trade my nicely written code for a $1bn company any day of the week
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August 13th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
“Does code quality really matter in the big picture?” Well I believe it does. For short term, unorganized, messy, yet unorganized code is of course very lucrative (as most developers probably came across that problem, or more, have this problem still) However, as soon as you start growing and adding more developers and transfering the knowledge, having more people wanting to hack around, etc., then it becomes a problem to have very messy code. I’m not saying that it should be 100% perfectly built but at least a bit more than that…?
August 13th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
I think in today’s economics underlying code quality sadly takes a back seat to traffic numbers and UI design. The importance of code quality also depends on the goal of the company. If the goal is to build value by amassing traffic and then selling quickly to the highest bidder, then code quality is of little importance. If the goal is to develop and maintain an efficient, sustainable web platform then code quality does matter. I doubt, at least 5 years ago, that myspace.com’s code could hold a candle to blackplanet.com’s code base. Yet, the inverse seemed to hold true for their respective valuations.