

The Scale of Programming Complexity - slig
http://www.jacquesmattheij.com/the-scale-of-programming-complexity

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anuraj
I will put the complexity of developing a reasonably complex native smart
phone application wth backend a little above that of developing a website with
similar backend business logic. There is also system programming like -
avionics, telecom switching and routing, medical imaging etc. which requires
high degree of learning, education and proficiency.

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tharris0101
I like this. Just two things, though:

2D game programming too low and basic dynamic websites too high.

For example, I know a lot of people who could churn out simple mobile apps or
basic dynamic websites in their sleep but would get slowed down by basic game
design.

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soup10
Everything about programming is easy when you break it down into parts. I
think good programing is about the ability to learn new domains, abstract
thinking skills, a good design sense(for architecting code and user
interaction/interfaces), and a healthy dose of patience for debugging. I
wouldn't generalize too much about specific domains because they each come
with their own unique challenges.

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dons
rank (n) * 8: formal verification of technology of rank _n_

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jules
Scientific codes are much harder to verify formally than programming language
implementations. Even getting an informal error bound is virtually impossible
in most cases. Formally verifying e.g. web applications is also incredibly
hard, but in other ways: (1) it's hard or impossible to formally specify in a
non-trivial way (2) the implementation depends on a huge amount of code that
needs to be verified or at least specified (OS, compiler, network, etc.).

In fact in this list, the most difficult things are the easiest to formally
verify: programming language implementations, network stack, OS, filesystems,
algorithms, etc.

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dons
Agreed. The more difficult on that list, the more formal the system, and the
more automated tools that have been developed to automate verification.

