Real-time complexity metric tools for visualAge smalltalk and C++

ABSTRACT

"Anything that one cannot measure cannot be controlled." Software metrics provide insight into the quality of software, informing the developers about the status of a project. Both what to measure and when to inform the developer of changes in code quality are important factors in a software metrics tool.Our work describes metrics that measure some aspects of software complexity. Complexities of a system arise from size, from the relationships between parts and between a part and the whole, and from changes or evolution. The metrics described in this paper concentrate on measuring complexities due to size and relationships. The work on Smalltalk contains seven metrics; on C++, eight. Differences are due to idiosyncrasies of the languages.We believe the best time to inform the developer of changes in code quality is at the time source code is edited. Our tools provide real-time metric feedback on the complexity of methods (Smalltalk or C++) whenever methods are edited. Changes in code quality are immediately presented to the developer, encouraging him or her to take notice of increased code complexity and to rework the method to reduce that complexity. The tools present code quality information unobtrusively, and recommend how to proceed.This paper describes a body of method complexity metrics and tools that communicate to software developers.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.8 Metrics
          Subjects: Complexity measures

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.2 Design Tools and Techniques
          Subjects: Computer-aided software engineering (CASE)
      D.2.6 Programming Environments
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.2 Language Classifications

          Nouns: Smalltalk; C++

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Experimentation, Languages, Measurement, Theory