Beyond numbers: Don't ask “how many” ... ask “why”

Authors:
Elliot Soloway;Kate Ehrlich;John B. Black
Affiliations:
Department of Computer Science, Yale University, Box 2158 Yale Station, New Haven, Connecticut;Department of Computer Science, Yale University, Box 2158 Yale Station, New Haven, Connecticut;Department of Psychology, Yale University, Box 11A Yale Station, New Haven, Connecticut
Venue:
CHI '83 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Year:
1983

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Abstract

While programmers may differ in their assessment of the comprehensibility of a program, there are nonetheless some clear cut cases of programs that are truly difficult to understand. In this paper, we analyze three programs—two of which are relatively incomprehensible—using Halstead's Volume Metric, Propositional Analysis and Plan Analysis. We argue that only Plan Analysis provides a satisfactory explanation for why the programs in question differ with respect to understandability. Moreover, we suggest that a qualitative analysis, such as provided by Plan Analysis, is the desired type of evaluation: rather than simply providing a numerical ranking for programs, the qualitative analysis can pinpoint the troublesome area in the code and provide prescriptive information for correcting the difficulty.