SoftwareMetrics

Goal

SoftwareMetrics compares different programming languages in order to determine which one is better than another according to a specific set of metrics.

Applying a series of tool on an algorithm written in different programming languages, we obtain a set of metrics necessary to make the comparisons between languages.

Usage

git clone --recurse-submodules -j8 https://github.com/SoftengPoliTo/SoftwareMetrics
make install
./analyzer.py -p <path_to_the_code_to_analyze>

To update submodules:

git submodule update --recursive --remote
make clean
make install

Used tools

Tokei

Used for: SLOC, LLOC, CLOC, BLANK

* Building: Ok
* Local installation: Ok

Can analyze either a single file or an entire directory

Rust Code Analysis

Used for: SLOC, PLOC, LLOC, CLOC, BLANK, NOM, CC, COGNITIVE, HALSTEAD, MI

* Building: Ok
* Local installation: Ok

Can analyze either a single file or an entire directory

Comparisons among different programming languages

To run the series of comparisons among the metrics produced by rust-code-analysis on some codes written in different programming languages, it is necessary to install json-diff:

Install npm as described here
Install json-diff following these instructions

At this point, the results of the comparisons can be obtained in this way:

./compare.py

Considered Metrics

SLOC
PLOC
LLOC
CLOC
BLANK
CC
COGNITIVE
Halstead
MI
NOM
NARGS
NEXITS
CHANGE
MPC
NPM
WMC
C&K
LCOM2
CE

Implemented metrics

SLOC: Source Lines of Code. It returns the total number of lines in a file.
PLOC: Physical Lines of Code. It returns the number of instructions and comment lines in a file.
LLOC: Logical Lines of Code. It returns the number of logical lines (statements) in a file.
CLOC: Comment Lines of Code. It returns the number of comment lines in a file.
BLANK: Blank Lines of Code. It returns the number of blank lines in a file.
NOM: Number of Methods. It counts the number of methods in a file.
NARGS: Number of Arguments. It counts the number of arguments of each method in a file.
NEXITS: Number of Exit Points. It counts the number of exit points of each method in a file.
CC: McCabe's Cyclomatic Complexity. It calculates the code complexity examining the control flow of a program.
COGNITIVE: Cognitive Complexity. It is a measure of how difficult a unit of code is to intuitively understand.
Halstead: It calculates the Halstead suite.
MI: Maintainability Index. It is a suite to measure the maintainability of a code. It is calculated both on files and functions.

Metrics to be implemented

CHANGE: It analyses different versions of the same code.

Class metrics (not to be implemented)

MPC: Message Passing Coupling. It is a metric from the Li & Henry suite.
NPM: Number of Public Methods. It returns the number of methods in a class declared as public.
WMC: McCabe's Weighted Methods Count. It sums the CC of each methods in a class. Hence, it is a per-class calculated metric.
C&K: Chidamber & Kemerer. It can be computed per-class only. Currently, we support only 4 of the 6 metrics defined by this metric suite.
LCOM2: Lack of Cohesion 2. An alternative way to calculate LCOM by C&K.
CE: Efferent Coupling. It can be computed per-class only.

Alternative metric names

STAT: Statements. In scientific literature, LLOC applied only on methods/classes is better known with this name.

SoftengPoliTo / SoftwareMetrics

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