Power, James F. and Malloy, Brian A. (2004) A metrics suite for grammar-based software. Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice, 16 (6). pp. 405-426. ISSN 1532-060X

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Abstract

One approach to measuring and managing the complexity of software, as it evolves over time, is to exploit software metrics. Metrics have been used to estimate the complexity of the maintenance effort, to facilitate change impact analysis, and as an indicator for automatic detection of a transformation that can improve the quality of a system. However, there has been little effort directed at applying software metrics to the maintenance of grammar-based software applications, such as compilers, editors, program comprehension tools and embedded systems. In this paper, we adapt the software metrics that are commonly used to measure program complexity and apply them to the measurement of the complexity of grammar-based software applications. Since the behaviour of a grammar-based application is typically choreographed by the grammar rules, the measure of complexity that our metrics provide can guide maintainers in locating problematic areas in grammar-based applications.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is the postprint version of the published article, which is available at DOI: 10.1002/smr.v16:6
Keywords:	program comprehension; software metrics; source code analysis; call graph; maintenance of grammar-based tools; metrics suite; grammar-based software;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Computer Science
Item ID:	6419
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1002/smr.v16:6
Depositing User:	Dr. James Power
Date Deposited:	29 Sep 2015 14:01
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice
Publisher:	John Wiley & Sons
Refereed:	Yes
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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