LOCC

Participants

• CSDL:  Joe Dane, Michael Paulding
  
• Affiliates: SUN, NSF

Summary

Effective program size measurement is difficult to accomplish. Factors such as program implementation language, programmer experience and application domain influence the effectiveness of particular size metrics to such a degree that it is unlikely that any single size metric will be appropriate for all applications.

This research introduces a tool, LOCC, which provides a grammar-based architecture and interface to the production and use of different size metrics. Developers can use the size metrics distributed with LOCC or can design their own metrics, which can be easily incorporated into LOCC. LOCC pays particular attention to the problem of supporting incremental development, where a work product is not created all at once but rather through a sequence of small changes applied to previously developed programs. LOCC requires that developers of new size metrics support this approach by providing a means of comparing two versions of a program.

LOCC's effectiveness was evaluated by using it to count over 50,000 lines of Java code, by soliciting responses to a questionnaire sent to users, and by personal reflection on the process of using and extending it. The evaluation revealed that users of LOCC found that it assisted them in their development process, although there were some improvements which could be made.

Software

locc-5.1.zip (January, 2006) contains the source code, documentation, build files, and a prebuilt jar file. It has been tested on both Windows and Unix. Release 5.1 is compatible with Java 5 or later. We request that you send us email at johnson@hawaii.edu to let us know if you are using LOCC.

References

Status

Started Spring, 1998. Initial evaluation and thesis completed in December, 1999. LOCC is not currently under active development.

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