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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.