Programmers Performance on Structured versus Nonstructured Function Definitions

摘要

A control-flow model for functional programs is used in an experimentalcomparison of the performance of programmers on structured versus nonstructured Miranda function definitions. The experimental set-up is similar to the Scanlan study (1989). However, in the present study, a two-factor repeated measures design is used in the statistical analysis. The control-flow model appears to be useful in the shaping of the experiment. A significantly better performance has been found for structured function definitions on both dependent variables: the time needed to answer questions about the function definitions and the proportion correct answers. Moreover, for structured function definitions, a counterintuitive result has been obtained: there are significantly fewer errors in larger definitions than in smaller ones. (Copyright (c) 1995 University of Twente).