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Empirical Software Engineering

Erschienen in:

01.11.2023

On the Investigation of Empirical Contradictions - Aggregated Results of Local Studies on Readability and Comprehensibility of Source Code

verfasst von: Talita Vieira Ribeiro, Paulo Sérgio Medeiros dos Santos, Guilherme Horta Travassos

Erschienen in: Empirical Software Engineering | Ausgabe 6/2023

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Abstract

Context

Reading and understanding the source code are fundamental to supporting software programmers’ daily activities. Still, there is no agreement regarding the program attributes needed to achieve the readability and comprehensibility of source code.

Objective

To analyze the influence of comments presence, indentation spacing, identifiers length, and code size on the readability and comprehensibility of source code from the perspective of novice and experienced programmers.

Method

We performed three primary studies and collected quantitative (Likert) and qualitative data representing the programmers’ judgment regarding the readability and comprehensibility of code snippets. For each study, the influence of the four attributes on the readability and comprehensibility of source code was analyzed. The results were aggregated using the odds-ratio approach and analyzed concerning participants’ programming experience.

Results

The quality characteristics were not significantly affected (alpha = 5%) by either the indentation spacing or the code size, whereas the presence of comments and identifier length affect source code quality positively under such characteristics, according to both novices and experienced programmers.

Conclusions

Although the results presented findings with statistical significance, the controlled factors and participants’ stratification between novices and experienced were insufficient to explain the contradictory findings in the technical literature concerning the impact of the attributes under evaluation on the readability and comprehensibility of source code.

Vorheriger Artikel The software heritage license dataset (2022 edition)

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https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#indentation

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Titel: On the Investigation of Empirical Contradictions - Aggregated Results of Local Studies on Readability and Comprehensibility of Source Code
verfasst von: Talita Vieira Ribeiro
Paulo Sérgio Medeiros dos Santos
Guilherme Horta Travassos
Publikationsdatum: 01.11.2023
Verlag: Springer US
Erschienen in: Empirical Software Engineering / Ausgabe 6/2023
Print ISSN: 1382-3256
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-7616
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-023-10360-5

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Abstract

Context

Objective

Method

Results

Conclusions

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