11-06-2018
Syntax, predicates, idioms — what really affects code complexity?
Published in: Empirical Software Engineering | Issue 1/2019
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Abstract
for
loops are significantly harder than if
s, that some but not all negations make a predicate harder, and that loops counting down are slightly harder than loops counting up. This demonstrates how the effect of syntactic structures, different ways to express predicates, and the use of known idioms can be measured empirically, and that syntactic structures are not necessarily the most important factor. We also found that the metrics of time to understanding and errors made are not necessarily equivalent. Thus loops counting down took slightly longer, but loops with unusual bounds caused many more errors. By amassing many more empirical results like these it may be possible to derive better code complexity metrics than we have today, and also to better appreciate their limitations.