An Empirical Study of COBOL Programs Via a Style Analyzer: The Benefits of Good Programming Style

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Author

Alan C. Benander,Barbara A. Benander

Entry type

article

Abstract

Despite its prominence as the most widely used programing language in industry, there are only a small number of publications on software metrics applied to COBOL. COBSTYLE, a one-pass, line-by line style analyzer, written in PL/I, is used to analyze 638 COBOL programs. COBSTYLE differs from other style analyzers in that it assesses penalty points for abuses in style, and considers to a larger degree, overall program structure. Mean style scores for 23 style characteristics are obtained. The data produced by COBSTYLE, together with programmer efficiency data, are stat- istically analyzed, yielding results which empirically demonstrate the benefits of good programming style. COBSTYLE, scores are shown to have statistically significant correlations with the following: (a) overall performance (as measured by students' final course grade)- at the 0.005 significance level; (b) program correctness- at the 0.01 significance level; and (c) total debugging time - at the 0.05 significance level. An important aspect of this study is the "after-the-fact" nature of the methodology; i.e., none of the participants in this experiment were aware that the programs to be submitted to a style analyzer for analysis.

Date

1989

Address

Cleveland, OH 44115

Institution

Elsevier Science Publishing Co. Inc.

Journal

The Journal of Systems and Software

Key alpha

benander

Pages

271-279

Publication Date

0000-00-00

Location

A hard-copy of this is in the Papers Cabinet

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@Article{ benander,
	title = "An Empirical Study of COBOL Programs Via a Style Analyzer: The Benefits of Good Programming Style",
	author = "Alan C. Benander,Barbara A. Benander",
	year = "1989",
	address = "Cleveland, OH 44115",
	institution = "Elsevier Science Publishing Co. Inc.",
	journal = "The Journal of Systems and Software",
	pages = "271-279",
	abstract = "Despite its prominence as the most widely used programing language
in industry, there are only a small number of publications on
software metrics applied to COBOL. COBSTYLE, a one-pass, line-by
line style analyzer, written in PL/I, is used to analyze 638
COBOL programs. COBSTYLE differs from other style analyzers in
that it assesses penalty points for abuses in style, and considers
to a larger degree, overall program structure. Mean style scores for
23 style characteristics are obtained. The data produced by
COBSTYLE, together with programmer efficiency data, are stat-
istically analyzed, yielding results which empirically demonstrate
the benefits of good programming style. COBSTYLE, scores are shown
to have statistically significant correlations with the following:
(a) overall performance (as measured by students' final course
grade)- at the 0.005 significance level; (b) program correctness-
at the 0.01 significance level; and (c) total debugging time -
at the 0.05 significance level. An important aspect of this study
is the "after-the-fact" nature of the methodology; i.e., none of
the participants in this experiment were aware that the programs
to be submitted to a style analyzer for analysis.",
}