Skip Navigation

The Computer Journal 1987 30(3):223-227; doi:10.1093/comjnl/30.3.223
© 1987 by British Computer Society
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (2)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Coulter, N. S.
Right arrow Articles by Solomon, M. K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Information-theoretic Complexity of Program Specifications

N. S. Coulter *, R. B. Cooper * and M. K. Solomon *

Department of Computer and Information Systems, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431, USA

Various models and metrics that are based on cognitive theories and assumptions have been proposed in an effort to formalise the concept of programming difficulty. The model and metric proposed here are, instead, based on a problem-space formalisation and an information-theoretic measure (entropy) that provides the complexity of a program specification; this metric can be applied before the specification's implementation is complete. The problem space for a program specification is the set of possible state descriptions that could arise from the execution of the program on that input, as ascertainable from the specification. We show how to define the entropy metric based on the problem space definition, and demonstrate the applicability of this metric to modularity problems.

Received January 1986.

* Department of Computer and Information Systems, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431, USA


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.