Meta Tech Podcast
69: To type or not to type — measuring productivity impact with DAT
Nov 29, 2024
Discover the intriguing debate on whether typing more enhances productivity or just adds to the workload. The discussion dives into Diff Authoring Time (DAT) as a fresh productivity metric and explores the evolution of the Hack programming language. Learn about the challenges of implementing incremental type checking in large codebases and the importance of developer experience. The hosts also highlight a groundbreaking experiment using typed mocking that led to significant time savings. Get insights on data-driven decision-making in developer infrastructure!
40:21
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Quick takeaways
- The Diff Authoring Time (DAT) metric quantifies the efficiency of developers by measuring the time taken to create and finalize code changes.
- Implementing a type mocking framework within the Hack programming environment significantly reduced debugging durations and improved overall coding workflow efficiency.
Deep dives
Understanding DAT and Its Impact on Productivity
Diff Authoring Time (DAT) serves as a key metric for measuring developer productivity at Meta. It quantifies the time taken by engineers to create and finalize code changes, providing insights into their efficiency levels. The podcast discusses how this metric was refined through experiments, especially by teams like the Hack Language team, that explored the correlation between user productivity and code type systems. DAT not only helps measure current productivity but also guides future improvements in the developer experience.
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