Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site harvard.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!teddy!panda!talcott!harvard!macrakis From: macrakis@harvard.ARPA (Stavros Macrakis) Newsgroups: net.lang Subject: Re: Language Level Message-ID: <264@harvard.ARPA> Date: Tue, 8-Jan-85 17:59:34 EST Article-I.D.: harvard.264 Posted: Tue Jan 8 17:59:34 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 10-Jan-85 07:03:10 EST References: <289@zinfandel.UUCP> Organization: Aiken Comp. Lab., Harvard Lines: 17 > Elements of Software Science, Maurice Halstead, Elsevier, 1977 > ... discuss[es] measurable features of programs and programming languages > ... Overall, interesting reading. I don't know if much has been done lately > (Halstead died several years ago) or if the ideas have fallen out of favor. > -- Ed Hirgelt ihnp4!zehntel!ed The ideas have fallen out of favor. See Lassez, et al., "A Critical Examination of Software Science", Journal of Systems and Software v. 2, p. 105, and its bibliography. I recall a paper somewhere written by Halstead's students also refuting much of software `science'. Anyway, any theory with a name as presumptuous as `software science' deserves to be wrong. I understand Halstead was inspired by an analogy to thermodynamics, operator:operand :: energy:entropy or some such. Empirical study of the statistics of programs remains, however, an important general direction.