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From: tomr@ashtate (Tom Rombouts)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Determining C Complexity
Keywords: C
Message-ID: <1050@ashton.UUCP>
Date: 19 Jul 90 18:47:41 GMT
References: <3205@mica6.UUCP>
Reply-To: tomr@ashton.UUCP (Tom Rombouts)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Ashton-Tate, Torrance, CA
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In article <3205@mica6.UUCP> motcid!henley@uunet.uu.net writes:
>I'm looking for the different points of view related to determining
>the complexity of a C program.  If anyone knows of any programs available
>that already do this I'd like to have some pointers to those as well.  The
>tool or theories would be applied to source code to enable management the
>ability to maintain stats regarding such things as:

In the DOS world, PC Metric for about $200 is a pretty good little
tool for this.  The manual also includes some history of the various
complexity algorithms it can use.  I see that versions for FORTRAN,
Pascal and Modula-2 are also available.  

However, be warned that (in my experience, at least), trying to quantify
software development into precise statistics based on things such as
lines of code, percentage of project completed, etc. is difficult at
best.  You can make sophisticated charts and graphs that will impress
managers or investors, but there is no real way to measure such things
as intelligence of the overall design and architecture, elegance of
algorithms, or quality of comments and documentation.  

Tom Rombouts  Torrance Techie  tomr@ashtate.A-T.com  V: (213) 538-7108

DISCLAIMER:  The above opinions are my own and do not necessarily rep-
resent the views or opinions of any known corporate entity.