An experimental evaluation of data type conventions

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An experimental evaluation of data type conventions

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Communications of the ACM archive
Volume 20 , Issue 8 (August 1977) table of contents

Pages: 584 - 595

Year of Publication: 1977

ISSN:0001-0782

Author

J. D. Gannon

Univ. of Maryland, College Park

Publisher

ACM New York, NY, USA

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Downloads (6 Weeks): 3, Downloads (12 Months): 21, Citation Count: 19

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abstract references cited by index terms collaborative colleagues

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ABSTRACT

The language in which programs are written can have a substantial effect on the reliability of the resulting programs. This paper discusses an experiment that compares the programming reliability of subjects using a statically typed language and a “typeless” language. Analysis of the number of errors and the number of runs containing errors shows that, at least in one environment, the use of a statically typed language can increase programming reliability. Detailed analysis of the errors made by the subjects in programming solutions to reasonably small problems shows that the subjects had difficulty manipulating the representation of data.

REFERENCES

Note: OCR errors may be found in this Reference List extracted from the full text article. ACM has opted to expose the complete List rather than only correct and linked references.

	1	Basili, V.R., and Turner, A.J, A transportable extendable compiler. Sojqware-Practice and Experience 5 (1975), 269-278.
	2	Gannon, J.D., and Homing, J.J. Language design for programming reliability. IEEE Trans. Software Eng. SE-1, 2 (June 1975), 179-191.
	3	Gannon, J.D. Data types and programming reliability: some preliminary evidence. MRI Symp. on Comptr. Software Eng., Vol. 24, Polytechic Press, Polytechnic Institute of N. Y. (1976). 367-376,
	4	Barbara Liskov , Stephen Zilles, Programming with abstract data types, Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN symposium on Very high level languages, p.50-59, March 28-29, 1974, Santa Monica, California, United States
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	10	Wulf, W.A., London, R.L.. and Shaw, M. An introduction to the construction and verification of Alphard programs. IEEE Trans. Software Eng. SE-2, 4 (Dec. 1976), 253-264.

CITED BY 19

	Ben Shneiderman, Improving the human factors aspect of database interactions, ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), v.3 n.4, p.417-439, Dec. 1978
	Richard Furuta , P. Michael Kemp, Experimental evaluation of programming language features: Implications for introductory programming languages, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.11 n.1, p.18-21, February 1979
	H. E. Dunsmore , J. D. Gannon, Programming factors - language features that help explain programming complexity, Proceedings of the 1978 annual conference, p.554-560, January 1978
	Alan Demers , James Donahue , Glenn Skinner, Data types as values: polymorphism, type-checking, encapsulation, Proceedings of the 5th ACM SIGACT-SIGPLAN symposium on Principles of programming languages, p.23-30, January 23-25, 1978, Tucson, Arizona
	R. M. Bryant, SIMPAS: A simulation language based on PASCAL, Proceedings of the 12th conference on Winter simulation, p.25-40, December 03-05, 1980, Orlando, FL
	Ruven E. Brooks, Studying programmer behavior experimentally: the problems of proper methodology, Communications of the ACM, v.23 n.4, p.207-213, April 1980
	Bill Curtis, A review of human factors research on programming languages and specifications, Proceedings of the 1982 conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.212-218, March 15-17, 1982, Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States
	B. D. Chaudhary , H. V. Sahasrabuddhe, Meaningfulness as a factor of program complexity, Proceedings of the ACM 1980 annual conference, p.457-466, January 1980
	Robert G. Reynolds , Jonathan I. Maletic, An introduction to refinement metrics: assessing a programming language's support of the stepwise refinement process, Proceedings of the 1990 ACM annual conference on Cooperation, p.82-88, February 20-22, 1990, Washington, D.C., United States
	B. A. Sheil, The Psychological Study of Programming, ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), v.13 n.1, p.101-120, March 1981
	Alan R. Feuer , Narain H. Gehani, Comparison of the Programming Languages C and Pascal, ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), v.14 n.1, p.73-92, March 1982
	Lutz Prechelt , Walter F. Tichy, A Controlled Experiment to Assess the Benefits of Procedure Argument Type Checking, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, v.24 n.4, p.302-312, April 1998
	Adrian Birka , Michael D. Ernst, A practical type system and language for reference immutability, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, v.39 n.10, October 2004
	J. D. Gannon, Characteristic errors in programming languages, Proceedings of the 1978 annual conference, p.570-575, January 1978
	Andrew D. McGettrick, Aspects of the ALGOL 68 mode structure, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, v.14 n.7, p.62-77, July 1979
	Matthew S. Tschantz , Michael D. Ernst, Javari: adding reference immutability to Java, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, v.40 n.10, October 2005
	Barbara G. Ryder , Mary Lou Soffa , Margaret Burnett, The impact of software engineering research on modern progamming languages, ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), v.14 n.4, p.431-477, October 2005
	Robin Abraham , Martin Erwig, Type inference for spreadsheets, Proceedings of the 8th ACM SIGPLAN symposium on Principles and practice of declarative programming, July 10-12, 2006, Venice, Italy
	Daniel M. Berry , Nancy Yavne , Moshe Yavne, On the requirements for the use of a program design language: parameterization, abstract data typing, strong typing, ACM SIGAda Ada Letters, v.VI n.1, p.82-89, Jan. 1986

INDEX TERMS

Keywords:
data types, experimentation, language design, redundancy, reliable software

Collaborative Colleagues:

J. D. Gannon: colleagues

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