A synthesis of software science measures and the cyclomatic number

A solution is obtained to the problem of defining a software measure or a family of measures which simultaneously detect those aspects of software complexity that are detected by the software science measures and the cyclomatic number. The authors present a family of measures, called weighted measures that is built on the software science measures by adding weights to certain operators and operands; the size of the weights is determined by a theorem which relates nesting levels and the cyclomatic number. Thus, by construction the weighted measures synthesize the software science measures and the cyclomatic number. Further, by applying the weighted measures, the software science measures, and the cyclomatic number to sample programs, it is shown that the weighted measures also synthesize in practice the software science measures and the cyclomatic number