I first heard the word "heuristic" while studying at Michigan
State University. I can't really recall the class—it was
probably a statistics class—but the word itself has stuck with
me. Heuristic means "a rule of thumb or educated guess that
narrows the search for solutions." (Source: The Dictionary of
Computing). For the purposes of this article, heuristic relates
to "the rule of thumb or educated guess" one can glean from
measurements. In Part 1 of this three-part series, I examine
what can and can't be reliably learned from a simple heuristic
measure, lines of code. In Part 2, I will illustrate how you can
employ VS.NET IDE macros to obtain lines-of-code measurements
and how you can use macros in general as a productivity tool. In
Part 3, I will demonstrate a pattern that can discernibly
improve a software development team. All of these elements work
in concert, as I will show. Each article is useful alone, but
together they will provide you with invaluable tools and skills.
Progressing as a programmer or