A Controlled Experiment to Assess the Benefits of Procedure Argument Type Checking Export

@article{citeulike:3883316, abstract = {Type checking is considered an important mechanism for detecting programming errors, especially interface errors. This report describes an experiment to assess the defect-detection capabilities of static, intermodule type checking. The experiment uses ANSI C and Kernighan\&Ritchie (K\&R) C. The relevant difference is that the ANSI C compiler checks module interfaces (i.e., the parameter lists calls to external functions), whereas K\&R C does not. The experiment employs a counterbalanced design in which each of the 40 subjects, most of them CS PhD students, writes two nontrivial programs that interface with a complex library (Motif). Each subject writes one program in ANSI C and one in K\&R C. The input to each compiler run is saved and manually analyzed for defects. Results indicate that delivered ANSI C programs contain significantly fewer interface defects than delivered K\&R C programs. Furthermore, after subjects have gained some familiarity with the interface they are using, ANSI C programmers remove defects faster and are more productive (measured in both delivery time and functionality implemented).}, address = {Piscataway, NJ, USA}, author = {Prechelt, Lutz and Tichy, Walter F.}, booktitle = {Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on}, citeulike-article-id = {3883316}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=279140}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/32.677186}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=677186}, doi = {10.1109/32.677186}, issn = {0098-5589}, journal = {IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng.}, keywords = {c, empirical, type}, number = {4}, pages = {302--312}, posted-at = {2009-10-26 21:50:51}, priority = {2}, publisher = {IEEE Press}, title = {A Controlled Experiment to Assess the Benefits of Procedure Argument Type Checking}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/32.677186}, volume = {24}, year = {1998} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:3883316 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3883316 N2 - Type checking is considered an important mechanism for detecting programming errors, especially interface errors. This report describes an experiment to assess the defect-detection capabilities of static, intermodule type checking. The experiment uses ANSI C and Kernighan&Ritchie (K&R) C. The relevant difference is that the ANSI C compiler checks module interfaces (i.e., the parameter lists calls to external functions), whereas K&R C does not. The experiment employs a counterbalanced design in which each of the 40 subjects, most of them CS PhD students, writes two nontrivial programs that interface with a complex library (Motif). Each subject writes one program in ANSI C and one in K&R C. The input to each compiler run is saved and manually analyzed for defects. Results indicate that delivered ANSI C programs contain significantly fewer interface defects than delivered K&R C programs. Furthermore, after subjects have gained some familiarity with the interface they are using, ANSI C programmers remove defects faster and are more productive (measured in both delivery time and functionality implemented). IS - 4 JF - IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. SN - 0098-5589 AD - Piscataway, NJ, USA EP - 312 TI - A Controlled Experiment to Assess the Benefits of Procedure Argument Type Checking PB - IEEE Press VL - 24 T2 - Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on SP - 302 KW - c KW - empirical KW - type AU - Prechelt, Lutz AU - Tichy, Walter PY - 1998/// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/32.677186 ER -