An empirical investigation of the influence of a type of side effects on program comprehension

TY - JOUR

T1 - An empirical investigation of the influence of a type of side effects on program comprehension

AU - Dolado, J J

AU - Harman, M

AU - Otero, M C

AU - Hu, L

PY - 2003/7

Y1 - 2003/7

N2 - This paper reports the results of a study on the impact of a type of side effect (SE) upon program comprehension. We applied a crossover design on different tests involving fragments of C code that include increment and decrement operators. Each test had an SE version and a side-effect-free counterpart. The variables measured in the treatments were the number of correct answers and the time spent in answering. The results show that the side-effect operators considered significantly reduce performance in comprehension-related tasks, providing empirical justification for the belief that side effects are harmful. (22 References).

AB - This paper reports the results of a study on the impact of a type of side effect (SE) upon program comprehension. We applied a crossover design on different tests involving fragments of C code that include increment and decrement operators. Each test had an SE version and a side-effect-free counterpart. The variables measured in the treatments were the number of correct answers and the time spent in answering. The results show that the side-effect operators considered significantly reduce performance in comprehension-related tasks, providing empirical justification for the belief that side effects are harmful. (22 References).

U2 - 10.1109/TSE.2003.1214329

DO - 10.1109/TSE.2003.1214329

M3 - Article

SN - 1939-3520

SN - 2326-3881

VL - 29

SP - 665

EP - 670

JO - IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

JF - IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

IS - 7

ER -