Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter I
2. Preface V
3. Acknowledgements VI
4. Contents IX
5. 1. Introduction 1
6. 2. Problems in Evaluating the Complexity of Programs
7. 2.1. Difficulties in Interpreting the Results of Software Complexity Measurement 7
8. 2.2. Problems in Interpreting Numerical Values 21
9. 2.3. Problems in Determining the Complexity of Programs 22
10. 2.4. Problems in Calculating the Arithmetic Mean 22
11. 2.5. Problems in Selecting Appropriate Software Complexity Measures 23
12. 3. Discussion about Software Measurement and Measures
13. 3.1. What is Software Measurement? 25
14. 3.2. An Overview of Software Measurement 27
15. 3.3. What are Software Metrics/Measures? 28
16. 3.4. Classification of Software Complexity Measures 31
17. 3.5. Verbal Definitions of the Term Complexity 34
18. 3.6. Limits to the Values of Software Measures 35
19. 3.7. Remarks About Measures in Relationship to Measurement Theory and Scales 36
20. 3.8. Summary 37
21. 4. Measurement Theory and Criteria for Scales
22. 4.1. The Definition of the Empirical Relational System and the Formal Relational System 40
23. 4.2. The Definition of Scales and Meaningfulness 42
24. 4.3. Criteria for Ordinal and Ratio Scales 46
25. 4.4. Description of Measures as an Ordinal and Ratio Scale 51
26. 4.5. Characterization of the Measure of McCabe 62
27. 4.6. Summary 65
28. 5. Models of Programs and their Definitions
29. 5.1. Definitions of Control Flowgraphs 67
30. 5.2. Definitions of Subflowgraphs and Primes 72
31. 5.3. Definitions and Notation for Decomposition of Flowgraphs, Sequence and Nesting 77
32. 5.4. Definitions of Structuredness of Flowgraphs 78
33. 5.5. Definition of Intervals and Reducibiiity 81
34. 5.6. Definition of Loops 82
35. 5.7. Definition of Unstructuredness of Flowgraphs 82
36. 5.8. Notations Used in this Book 84
37. 6. Ideas Behind the Complexity of Programs
38. 6.1. Desirable Properties of Measures by Tsai, Lopez, Rodriguez and Volovik 87
39. 6.2. Desirable Properties of Measures by Evangeiisti 88
40. 6.3. Ideas of Complexity by McCabe 89
41. 6.4. Ideas of Complexity by Belady 89
42. 6.5. Axioms of Complexity by Piwowarski 89
43. 6.6. Axioms of Complexity by Bache 90
44. 6.7. Desireable Properties of Complexity Measures by Weyuker 92
45. 6.8. Required Properties for Measures by Jayaprakash, Lakshmanan and Sinha 96
46. 6.9. Summary 98
47. 7. Our Investigation of Software Complexity Measures
48. 7.1. Overview of our Investigation of the Measures 99
49. 7.2. The "Measure Demonstration System" MDS 100
50. 7.3. Atomic Modifications, Partial Properties and the Ordinal Scale 120
51. 7.4. Extensive Structure and Binary Operations between Programs 127
52. 7.5. Conditions for the Use of Measures as an Ordinal and a Ratio Scale in Practice 128
53. 7.6. Summary 131
54. 8. Characterization of Software Complexity Measures
55. 8.1. Selection of the Software Complexity Measures 138
56. 8.2. Measures of Halstead 142
57. 8.3. Measure Lines of Code 146
58. 8.4. Measures of McCabe and Modifications 151
59. 8.5. Measures "Relative and Absolute Logical Complexity" of Gilb 170
60. 8.6. Measure "Control Flow Density" of Szentes and Potier 176
61. 8.7. Measures of Szentes and Gras 179
62. 8.8. Measure of Oviedo 195
63. 8.9. Measure PATH of Schneidewind 200
64. 8.10. Measures of Whitworth and Szulewski 206
65. 8.11. Measures of Hecht and Extensions 221
66. 8.12. Measure of Moawad and Hassan and Extensions 234
67. 8.13. Measure "Reachability" of Schneidewind 242
68. 8.14. Measures of Chen 250
69. 8.15. Measures Based on the Prime Decomposition of Flowgraphs 265
70. 8.16. Measure of Schmidt and Gong and Extensions 374
71. 8.17. Measures Based on Ranges 400
72. 8.18. Measures for Analyzing the Unstructuredness of Flowgraphs 458
73. 9. Results and Research in the Future
74. 9.1. List of the Investigated Measures 511
75. 9.2. Partial Properties of the Measures 512
76. 9.3. Properties of Measures Related to the Extensive Structure 531
77. 9.4. Set of Measures to Measure the Intra-Modular Complexity 538
78. 9.5. Measurement Process of Restructure and Software Reuse 551
79. 9.6. Wrong and Correct Calculation of the Arithmetic Mean 557
80. 9.7. Complexity In Comparison to Reference Programs and Program Versions 558
81. 9.8. Validation of a Measure 560
82. 9.9. Correlation between Software Complexity Measures 562
83. 9.10. Open Problems and Research in the Future 563
84. 10. Glossary of Terms 565
85. 11. References 573
86. Name Index 587
87. Subject Index 590
88. Measure Index 598
89. Definition Index 601
90. Backmatter 607