advocacy help ( Python vs VB )

[Peter Hansen]

Peter Milliken wrote:
> 
> I just checked the "Programming Language Levels and Ranges of Source Code
> Statements per Function Point" Table in Capers Jones book "Applied Software
> Measurement" (2nd edition) and got the following data:
> 
> Visual Basic 2   35loc/FP  Level 9.0
> Visual Basic 3   32loc/FP  Level 10.0
> Perl  27loc/FP  Level 12.0
> 
> Unfortunately I couldn't find Python in the table but the figures for Perl
> is probably close enough. So assuming that these average figures are correct
> and that there is a 1:1 relationship between Perl and Python (I assume
> Python would be higher!) then using Python should show approximately a (32 -
> 27) / 32 * 100 = 16% productivity improvement - hardly earth shattering! :-)
> But since Python is better than Perl perhaps we could expect about 25%
> ???????

loc/FP may be a good indication of relative program length, but it
should not be used blindly for comparisons of productivity.  Not that
I have any data to back this up, but anecdotally speaking I find Python 
development goes faster more as a result of its very high readability
than as a result of low loc/FP.  

-Peter