Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!apollo!ulowell!cg-atla!bradlee From: bradlee@cg-atla.UUCP (Rob Bradlee X5153) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: C code metrics Keywords: metrics quality Message-ID: <4820@cg-atla.UUCP> Date: 28 Jun 88 14:07:00 GMT Distribution: comp Organization: Compugraphic Corp., Wilmington, Mass Lines: 41 Request for Help: I've recently been reading DeMarco's "Controlling Software Projects" (Yourdon Press 1982), and am now interested in adding some metrics to our project. However, his metrics are designed for EDP projects written in COBOL. We have an interactive system written in C and running UNIX. Can any net readers offer advice about or tools for measuring the following: Code Volume Past attemps to measure the size of code have used number of lines. However, this appears to be pretty inaccurate. DeMarco suggests that counting the number of operands and operators and multiply by the log(base 2) of the number of unique identifiers is a much more accurate measure. Anyone have a program to parse C code and do this? What about including .h files and macros? Code Quality DeMarco suggests analysing code by counting the number of entry and exit points from routines, looking for GOTOs, etc. Anyone have a program that could parse C code and at least give some indication of relative complexity of different modules and perhaps hightlight areas of code that might profit from a code code review? I'm looking both for information explaining how to judge the size and quality of C code, and also for any tools that will automatically perform some analysis. Send me email, and if I get any good info I'll summarize to the net. Thanks in advance. -- Rob Bradlee w:(617)-658-5600 X5153 h:(617)-944-5595 Compugraphic Corp. ...!{ima,ulowell,ism780c}!cg-atla!bradlee 200 Ballardvale St. Wilmington, Mass. 01887 The Nordic Way: Ski till it hurts!