For Programmers, Close Doesn’t Count

While I thought the headline “The Power Nerds” (Jan. 12) was unnecessarily insulting, I enjoyed the article. I particularly liked the two paragraphs buried on D13:

“ ‘One CEO who called recently wasn’t even sure how to ask how efficient his programmers are. He was tempted to ask his CIO about the number of lines of code they produce.’

“That would be a bit like evaluating a quarterback by how many passes he throws. When it comes to writing computer programs, precision counts. Fewer lines are usually better.”

Finally, someone got it right!

ARTHUR METZ

Los Angeles