Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!munnari!mulga!ditmela!latcs1!ken From: ken@latcs1.oz (Ken Lew) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Software complexity metrics Message-ID: <3795@latcs1.oz> Date: 14 Dec 87 00:35:24 GMT Reply-To: ken@latcs1.oz (Ken Lew) Organization: Comp Sci, La Trobe Uni, Australia Lines: 26 In article 87 of comp.software-eng: From: rion@wdl1.UUCP (Rion Cassidy) >However, except for what the name implies, I really don't know what >program complexity metrics are and therefore can't answer. How about >a brief overview? Anybody? Program complexity metric is used to indicate the "quality" of a program by measuring certain characteristics such as program size, number of decision statements, information flow, etc. For example, McCabe's cyclomatic number measures the number of independent paths in a program and is related to the number of decision statements. McCabe has used the metric to control the number of paths in a program module to increase the program test coverage. Although non of the complexity metrics has been validated, some empirical studies have found them useful in software development. For reference, read: Software Metrics: An analysis and evaluation, ed. A. Perlis et. al., MIT, 1981 ken@latcs1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------