Thousands of Lines of Code

What Does Thousands of Lines of Code Mean?

Thousands (Kilos) of Lines of Code (KLOC) is a measure used to evaluate the size of a software program. KLOCs are often used to estimate the required time for a team to build a project.

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Techopedia Explains Thousands of Lines of Code

KLOC is sometimes used to measure team productivity. In theory, a measure like KLOC enables development firms to calculate the efficiency per developer.

That being said, most developers would believe that such measures are at best simplistic, and at worst outright useless. In many ways, a more productive developer will write less code to solve a problem in a more elegant manner. Developers aren’t workers in a factory producing widgets. Anybody who thinks they can measure developer productivity by lines of code has clearly never written a line of code themselves.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…