No wonder, since by that metric

    var r= dice(array,12)
    r=slice(r)
    r=trim(r)
    r=strip(r)

is four times as productive as

    var r=strip(trim(slice(dice(array,12))))

You can compute a more accurate LOC metric based on the language's grammar, so that the above situations are identically measured. But the issue with using LOC remains, of course.

Some actually try to remove lines of code on purpose. :)

See Bill Atkinson, main developer of the Apple Lisa UI:

http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s...

Yeah, or Paul Graham and his quest to make arc as concise as possible.