APL extended compared with other languages according to Halstead's theory

Citation
Fhd. Van Batenburg et al., APL extended compared with other languages according to Halstead's theory, ACM SIGPL N, 33(6), 1998, pp. 54-60
Citations number
9
Categorie Soggetti
Computer Science & Engineering
Journal title
ACM SIGPLAN NOTICES
ISSN journal
15232867 → ACNP
Volume
33
Issue
6
Year of publication
1998
Pages
54 - 60
Database
ISI
SICI code
1523-2867(199806)33:6<54:AECWOL>2.0.ZU;2-A
Abstract
In a previous paper, Halstead's theory was applied to first generation APL. Those implementations only support simple arrays (APL/SA). In this paper w e extend the application of Halstead's theory to second generation APL; the main difference being that those implementations support arrays of arrays or nested arrays (APL/NA). In both investigations, Halstead's theory had to be adjusted in order to account for the fact that in APL operations may be functions or operators. It is shown that the language level increases from 3.07 for APL/SA to 3.62 for APL/NA This means that language efficiency of APL versus assembler raises from about 12 for APL/SA to nearly 17 for APL/N A.