The sharply rising cost incurred during the production of quality software has brought with it the need for the development of new techniques of software measurement.In particular, the ability to objectively assess the clarity of a program is essential In order to rationally develop useful engineering gUidel ines for efficient software production and language development.A functional relation between the clarity of a program and the number and frequency of operators and operands which occur in the program Is presented. This measure of program clarity provides an estimate of the amount of mental effort required to understand the program, assuming that the reader Is fluent in the programming language employed. This measure is tested by applying it to several published examples which demonstrate improvements in program clarity. The objective assessment which is provided using this measure is found to agree with the experimental data gathered.
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