How fast do you code?

I’ve always wondered how fast other developers code. How many lines of code do they write per day, per hour? To be honest i’m a pretty slow coder, i can type faster but i prefer to go slow.

I want to know what everyone thinks? Are the so called “real” developers really fast coders? does it matter at all?

Any input would be appreciated:)

Comments

[Ben Sinclair]

That also depends on your target. If you're after a GUI app, for example, you might get there a lot faster in Java with all the available libraries and automatically-inserted boilerplate an IDE gives you.

[derek]

There used to be Codeivate--an app that would measure keystrokes over time with a text editor (sublime text, text wrangler, atom) plugin.

You might want to give 👀github.com/codeivate/codeivate-st

I think there are definitely some wizards out there who can shred on a keyboard and have great code, but from my encounters they usually are over 50 and have beards that usually choose python as their weapon of choice 😜.

But I don't think to be a "real" dev you gotta be fast. And to answer your question of does it matter, I think the context "matters". Some interviews have timed coding challenges so in that sense I can see how it does. Or if you have a micromanaging boss, than perhaps maybe looking productive versus actually being productive matters.

[San]

I think we will all definitely get to the point where we're shredding on a keyboard lol, but ive always thought quality cant be rushed, so i take my time.

[Modaf]

Depends if I need to implement something I already "know" (in programming contest for instance and I'm decent (not too fast but not that slow)), or if I'm writting something new (in that case I make a looooooot of mistakes and I'm pretty slow due to my lack of experience I think)

[Chris James]

Programming is quite incidental to software development

[Philip Hallstrom]

I dunno, but I've noticed that I type faster if the music I'm listening to is also fast and similarly slow if it's slow. And I go much faster when writing Ruby than Javascript.

[San]

i never considered there was a bottleneck in the way we think about programming