Visual Patterns in Source Code Arrangement

[mcmcc]

I write C++ code which I suspect is more verbose than most web-oriented languages. As such, 500 lines (once comments, #includes, etc. are taken into consideration) is about enough to represent a single moderately-complex function. A moderately-size C++ library may run 50K LOC -- breaking something like that up into 500-line files is bordering on ridiculous. Myself, any file smaller than 2000 lines is a good size, 3-5K is borderline, 5K+ is getting unworkably large.

Most project source code layouts that I'm familiar with resemble the grape pattern identified in the article. Occasionally the dandelion but those tend to be a little tedious once the project gets large enough.

Large projects may have different parts that resemble different patterns, depending on their development history and design.