Typographic style is more than cosmetic

  • Authors:
  • Paul W. Oman;Curtis R. Cook

  • Affiliations:
  • Univ. of Idaho, Moscow;Oregon State Univ., Corvallis

  • Venue:
  • Communications of the ACM
  • Year:
  • 1990

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Abstract

There is disagreement about the role and importance of typographicstyle (source code formatting and commenting) in program comprehension.Results from experiments and opinions in programming style books aremixed. This article presents principles of typographic style consistentand compatible with the results of program comprehension studies. Fourexperiments demonstrate that the typographic style principles embodiedin the book format significantly aid program comprehension and reducemaintenance effort.—Authors' Abstract