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 |
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Pages (from-to) | 477-492 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Information and software technology |
Volume | 38 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jul 1996 |
Keywords
- IR-57290
- EWI-10094
- Software metric
- Structured programming
- Functional Programming
- SE-SMM: Software Measurement and Metrics
- Comprehensibility