The Effect of Software Reusability on Information Theory Based Software Metrics
Abstract
The main purpose of this thesis is to theoretically investigate the effect of reusing software on metrics that are based on the entropy function of communication information theory. R. Chanon's Entropy Loading and E. Chen's Control Structure Entropy were applied to C and Ada programs obtained from the open literature. Four units of program decomposition (statement, component, module, and program) along Chanon's definition of an object were introduced to classify software reuse units. A total of three versions for each of the programs included in the study were considered (i.e., optimum reuse, intermediate reuse, and no reuse). The lines of code metric was utilized to quantify the amount of nonreusable code in each of the versions of the programs. The lines of code metric was not applied to the 'reused' segments of code since they are not considered part of the effort of writing the new program. Pearson product-moment correlations were computed between the metrics studied and the lines of code metric. (kr)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA224472
Entities
People
- William R. Torres
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology