79 lines
3.6 KiB
Markdown
79 lines
3.6 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Hits-of-Code Badges"
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description = "Building a web service for readme badges"
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date = "2019-05-03T16:00:00+02:00"
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publishdate = "2019-05-03T16:00:00+02:00"
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draft = false
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categories = ["rust", "programming"]
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tags = ["rust", "actic-web", "hits-of-code", "code metric"]
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There are few metrics that try to evaluate a codebase. Some give a
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glimpse about the code quality like cyclomatic complexity, code
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duplication, dependency graphs and the most accurate of all, [WTFs per
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minute (WTFs/min)](https://www.osnews.com/story/19266/wtfsm/). Others
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are less well fit to actually evaluate the quality of a code base such
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as [souce lines of code
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(SLoC)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_lines_of_code). Counting
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SLoC might seem like a good metric for the amount of work invested in
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a piece of software at first, but when you think about it, things like
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refactorings and removal of duplicate code through new abstractions
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might reduce the SLoC even if work was invested.
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[](https://www.osnews.com/story/19266/wtfsm/)
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## Hits-of-Code
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A few years ago, [Yegor Bugayenko](https://www.yegor256.com) proposed
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[Hits-of-Code](https://www.yegor256.com/2014/11/14/hits-of-code.html)
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as an alternative to SLoC. The idea is to count the changes made to
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the codebase over time instead of simply counting the current amount
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of lines. By looking at the commit history, you can calculate the
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metric and it gives a better overview about the amount of work, that
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was invested to implement some project. The score grows with every
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commit you make and can never shrink.
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While this has nothing to say about the code quality, I think this is
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a useful metric, so I decided to implement a small web service to
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generate badges for everyone to include in their readme files:
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[hitsofcode.com](https://hitsofcode.com).
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[](https://hitsofcode.com/view/github/vbrandl/hoc)
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Currently only repositories hosted on [GitHub](https://github.com),
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[Gitlab](https://gitlab.com) and [BitBucket](https://bitbucket.org)
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are supported. The service is implemented in Rust using the
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[actix-web](https://actix.rs) framework and deployed as a Docker
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container. It is possible to self-host everything using the [Docker
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image](https://hub.docker.com/r/vbrandl/hits-of-code) or by building
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the [source code](https://github.com/vbrandl/hoc) yourself.
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The service simply creates a bare clone of the referenced repository
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and parses the output of `git log`. I also implemented a simple
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caching mechanism by storing the commit ref of `HEAD` and the HoC
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score. Consecutive requests will pull the repository, compare the old
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`HEAD` against the new one, if the `HEAD` changed, the HoC between the
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old and the new one is calculated and the old score gets added. If
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`HEAD` stayed the same, the old score is returned.
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I have some ideas for the future, e.g. calculating the metric using a
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git library instead of invoking a git binary like in the [reference
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implementation](https://github.com/yegor256/hoc/blob/master/lib/hoc/git.rb#L41)
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and implement nicer overview pages. But for now the service works
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fine and is already used by some repositories. If you got any feature
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requests or bugs to report, just open a [issue on
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GitHub](https://github.com/vbrandl/hoc/issues) or [contact me
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directly](/contact).
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## Final Words
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I think HoC is a cool metric and it is a fun project to work on and
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improve further but always keep in mind:
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> Responsible use of the metrics is just as important as collecting
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> them in the first place.
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>
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> <cite>[Jeff Atwood](https://blog.codinghorror.com/a-visit-from-the-metrics-maid/)</cite>
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