Code as a Crime Scene: A Fresh Perspective on Understanding and Optimizing Your Code Base

🕵️‍♀️Programmers spend a majority of their time making modifications to existing code and trying to understand its functionality.

🗺️Geographical offender profiling can be applied to code, where complex code sections are identified as 'hotspots' that require attention.

📊Traditional complexity metrics, such as McCabe's cyclomatic complexity, have limitations and may not accurately predict code complexity.

🤔Intuition, based on expertise and recognition, can help in understanding and optimizing code, but it doesn't scale well for large code bases.

🌐Using a geographic visualization of code, like Code City, can provide a better overview of code complexity distribution.

What is meant by 'code as a crime scene'?

—'Code as a crime scene' refers to the idea that code contains valuable information that can be analyzed and understood, similar to how crime scenes are investigated for clues.

How can geographical offender profiling be applied to code?

—Geographical offender profiling in code involves identifying complex code sections as 'hotspots' that require attention and optimization.

What are the limitations of traditional complexity metrics?

—Traditional complexity metrics, like McCabe's cyclomatic complexity, may not accurately predict code complexity and can be limited in their effectiveness.

Can intuition be used to understand and optimize code?

—Intuition, based on expertise and recognition, can provide insights into code, but it may not scale well for large code bases.

How does Code City help in understanding code complexity?

—Code City provides a visual representation of code complexity distribution, allowing developers to identify areas that require optimization.

00:18Programmers spend most of their time making modifications to existing code and trying to understand it.

03:09Geographical offender profiling can be applied to code to identify 'hotspots' that require attention and optimization.

03:56Traditional complexity metrics, like McCabe's cyclomatic complexity, may not accurately predict code complexity.

06:12Intuition, based on expertise and recognition, can help in understanding and optimizing code, but it may not scale well.

13:58Code City provides a visual representation of code complexity distribution.