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> In absence of more accessible complexity measurements, line counts do matter somewhat. E.g. the briefer a program is, the more readable it is (last time I checked, brainpower and time is much more expensive than computing power and bandwidth.)

There are as many exceptions to that rule are there are examples when it’s true. Code golfing, minifified code, shell 1 liners, Perl, etc.

Line counts mean jack shit.

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I would argue that even an esoteric, densely packed one-liner can still be more readable than the equivalent program spread out over a greater number of lines - simply because you can keep it all in sight at the same time and work through it without losing the bigger picture.

But of course, scary symbols is scary.

So you'd like to use APL, then? He didn't say symbols. Verbose code can be much easier, though stupidly verbose is stupid. Compromise is, as usual, the best solution.

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