Why code is money? A simple explanation in english to non-technical people

Code is money.

This is really the TLDR; of the following paragraphs.

So to understand my statement you need some specific knowledge which is not so obvious for everyone, specially if you arrive from a non-tech background.

Code is written words. Following an extreme rigorus syntax. Nothing fancy. We are not into the matrix with a bunch of 0s and 1s.

There are multiple programming languages. On top of them there are multiple language-specific libraries. Libraries are simply code packed together and reused by developers (and they also create them).

Here starts already the confusion because based on the technology stack that developers around you are using you may hear different terms... which basically refers always to the same concept of "library".

Just for an example, here there is a list of programming languages with the naming convention used to refer to "library".

• JavaScript/Node.js -> Packages, Modules
• Rust -> Crates
• Swift -> Pods
• Python -> Wheels, Eggs, Packages, Modules
• Java -> JARs, Modules
• Ruby -> Gems, Modules
• Go -> Packages
• Perl -> CPAN Modules, Ports
• Haskell -> Cabal Packages
• Elixir -> Hex Packages
• Erlang -> Applications

Yes, with python we are going crazy mode with wheels and eggs.

Anyway be prepared to use words that in another context obviously mean the proper things. Just to let you know.

So to return back on track, my point here is that nowdays developers use libraries basically for anything. And it's not a shame at all. I mean, do you really want to reinvent the fu***** wheel? lol No, so you want to reuse as much code as possible.

One point here is that if there are so many libraries out there how developers choose one? Sometimes there are "business" constrain and so they have to use some specific library to do some specific thing.

At this point I want to introduce a new key concept: frameworks. Basically they can be seen as a well architected and organized structure that can use a bunch of libraries inside (it depends). Do you feel the amount of code increasing? And we didn't even started building our product.

But why developers need to use frameworks or libraries?

Well, because it's more complex and time consuming to rewrite the code that someone other already wrote, tested and released for the developers community. And of course speed is an advantage when you compete with other business in your same niche.

Another way to see all of these code packed together (frameworks, libraries, etc) is the amount of money your company don't need to invest to create the basics needed to start actual feature development on top.