All right, so the title is a little odd. It's a web metrics experiment. I enjoy measuring things. It is a competitive thing, it is a factual thing and it is a curiosity thing. Or, maybe it is just something that makes me happy (like cheese doodles and cheese doodle exchanges with my daughters---don't tell anyone...). Regardless, this supposedly will spike traffic, so I want to see. I will share the results.

I was running through my blogroll and read Jeff Bonwick's latest post. It's an interesting read. More importantly, it explains how we think about things here at Sun. In this blog, Jeff starts with the general case for a seemingly complex problem, calculating the sum of an arbitrarily large number of numbers. However, he turns the problem a bit sideways, points out some fundamental properties, and ruthlessly excises the complexity out of the problem. He takes the complex and makes it simple. He doesn't do it using odd, brain-straining machinations or obscure formulas. He simply points out the needless complexity and removes the "useless fat".

At Sun, we write code that lasts in the production environment on the order of ten years. Think about that for a moment. Our code will be in your production environment for at least ten years. For this reason, every line of code we write is carefully scrutinized and weighed before it is released. It is a deeply methodical process. Do we make mistakes? Of course. Are there gaps? Yep. However, since almost all of our code is open, and we tend to conform to standards, we try to mitigate that risk.

So, what's my point?

At Sun we have deeply thoughtful engineers who write world-class code in an open environment predicated on standards. And we like cheese doodles. Read AmyO's blog for a bit of XAM....