Title :
Tool assisted identifier naming for improved software readability: an empirical study
Author :
Relf, Phillip A.
Author_Institution :
Fac. of Eng., Univ. of Technol., Sydney, NSW, Australia
Abstract :
This paper describes an empirical study investigating whether programmers improve the readability of their source code if they have support from a source code editor that offers dynamic feedback on their identifier naming practices. An experiment, employing both students and professional software engineers, and requiring the maintenance and production of software, demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in source code readability over that of the control.
Keywords :
software maintenance; statistical analysis; dynamic feedback; empirical analysis; software engineering; software maintenance; software production; software readability; source code editor; source code readability; tool assisted identifier naming; Australia; Costs; Cultural differences; Feedback; Guidelines; Production; Programming profession; Software maintenance; Software tools; Writing;
Conference_Titel :
Empirical Software Engineering, 2005. 2005 International Symposium on
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-9507-7
DOI :
10.1109/ISESE.2005.1541814
