Halstead complexity measures: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:18, 27 October 2016

Revision as of 18:34, 27 October 2016

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'''Halstead complexity measures''' are [[software metric]]s introduced by Maurice Howard Halstead in 1977<ref>{{cite book |author=Halstead, Maurice H. |title=Elements of Software Science |publisher=Elsevier North-Holland, Inc. |___location=Amsterdam |year=1977 |isbn=0-444-00205-7}}</ref> as part of his treatise on establishing an empirical science of software development.

Halstead made the observation t hatthat metrics of the software should reflect the implementation or expression of algorithms in different languages, but be independent of their execution on a specific platform.

These metrics are therefore computed statically from the code.

Halstead's goal was to identify measurable pr opertiesproperties of software, and the relations between them.

This is similar to the identification of measurable properties of matter (like the volume, mass, and pressure of a gas) and the relationships between them (analogous to the [[ideal gas law|gas equation]]).

Thus his metrics are actually not just complexity metrics.