Heuristics for computing attribute values of C++ program complexity metrics

Abstract

We proposed new metrics for computing the program complexity of object oriented programs (E.M. Kim et al., 1994). In these metrics, we examined program complexity from three dimensional viewpoints in object oriented paradigm: syntax dimension, inheritance dimension and interaction dimension. We have defined attributes to evaluate three viewpoints quantitatively. We present some heuristics for computing actual values of the attributes, for which we have given only definitions in a previous paper. Then, we analytically evaluate the new metrics with regard to E.J. Weyuker's (1988) measurement principles. As a result, it is found that our metrics satisfy essential properties which any measure must have. Finally, we develop the tool to compute the values of the attributes automatically.