Programmers' Performance on Structured versus Nonstructured Function Definitions

Klaas van den Berg; P.M. van den Broek

doi:10.1016/0950-5849(95)01085-8

Programmers' Performance on Structured versus Nonstructured Function Definitions

Klaas van den Berg, P.M. van den Broek

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Abstract

A control-flow model for functional programs is used in an experimental comparison of the performance of programmers on structured versus nonstructured Miranda function definitions. The performance is taken as a measure of the comprehensibility of functional programs. The experimental set-up is similar to the Scanlan study (1989). However, in the present study, a two-factor repeated measures design is used in the statistical analysis. The control-flow model appears to be useful in the shaping of the experiment. A significantly better performance has been found for structured function definitions on both dependent variables: the time needed to answer questions about the function definitions and the proportion correct answers. Moreover, for structured function definitions, a counter-intuitive result has been obtained: there are significantly fewer errors in larger definitions than in smaller ones.

Original language	Undefined
Pages (from-to)	477-492
Number of pages	15
Journal	Information and software technology
Volume	38
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/0950-5849(95)01085-8
Publication status	Published - Jul 1996

Keywords

IR-57290
EWI-10094
Software metric
Structured programming
Functional Programming
SE-SMM: Software Measurement and Metrics
Comprehensibility

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10.1016/0950-5849(95)01085-8

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Cite this

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abstract = "A control-flow model for functional programs is used in an experimental comparison of the performance of programmers on structured versus nonstructured Miranda function definitions. The performance is taken as a measure of the comprehensibility of functional programs. The experimental set-up is similar to the Scanlan study (1989). However, in the present study, a two-factor repeated measures design is used in the statistical analysis. The control-flow model appears to be useful in the shaping of the experiment. A significantly better performance has been found for structured function definitions on both dependent variables: the time needed to answer questions about the function definitions and the proportion correct answers. Moreover, for structured function definitions, a counter-intuitive result has been obtained: there are significantly fewer errors in larger definitions than in smaller ones.",

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AB - A control-flow model for functional programs is used in an experimental comparison of the performance of programmers on structured versus nonstructured Miranda function definitions. The performance is taken as a measure of the comprehensibility of functional programs. The experimental set-up is similar to the Scanlan study (1989). However, in the present study, a two-factor repeated measures design is used in the statistical analysis. The control-flow model appears to be useful in the shaping of the experiment. A significantly better performance has been found for structured function definitions on both dependent variables: the time needed to answer questions about the function definitions and the proportion correct answers. Moreover, for structured function definitions, a counter-intuitive result has been obtained: there are significantly fewer errors in larger definitions than in smaller ones.

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