DocumentCode :
1575753
Title :
Fine-Grained Software Metrics in Practice
Author :
English, Michael ; Buckley, Jim ; Cahill, Tony
Author_Institution :
Univ. of Limerick, Limerick
fYear :
2007
Firstpage :
295
Lastpage :
304
Abstract :
Modularity is one of the key features of the Object- Oriented (00) paradigm. Low coupling and high cohesion help to achieve good modularity. Inheritance is one of the core concepts of the 00 paradigm which facilitates modularity. Previous research has shown that the use of the friend construct as a coupling mechanism in C+ + software is extensive. However, measures of the friend construct are scarse in comparison with measures of inheritance. In addition, these existing measures are coarse-grained, in spite of the widespread use of the friend mechanism. In this paper, a set of software metrics are proposed that measure the actual use of the friend construct, inheritance and other forms of coupling. These metrics are based on the interactions for which each coupling mechanism is necessary and sufficient. Previous work only considered the declaration of a relationship between classes. The software metrics introduced are empirically assessed using the LEDA software system. Our results indicate that the friend mechanism is used to a very limited extent to access hidden methods in classes. However, access to hidden attributes is more common.
Keywords :
object-oriented programming; software metrics; C+ + software; LEDA software system; fine-grained software metrics; object- oriented paradigm; software modularity; Area measurement; Buildings; Object oriented modeling; Programming; Software engineering; Software measurement; Software metrics; Software quality; Software systems;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, 2007. ESEM 2007. First International Symposium on
Conference_Location :
Madrid
ISSN :
1938-6451
Print_ISBN :
978-0-7695-2886-1
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/ESEM.2007.32
Filename :
4343757
Link To Document :
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