The effect of scope delimiters on program comprehension

TitleThe effect of scope delimiters on program comprehension
Publication TypeJournal Articles
Year of Publication1983
AuthorsSykes F, Tillman RT, Shneiderman B
JournalSoftware: Practice and Experience
Volume13
Issue9
Pagination817 - 824
Date Published1983/09/01/
ISBN Number1097-024X
KeywordsProgramming language design, Scope delimiters, Software psychology
Abstract

Scope delimiters, such as BEGIN-END or DO-END, are used in many programming languages, but they can lengthen and clutter a program listing. This paper provides experimental evidence that ENDIF or ENDWHILE statement terminators make for easier to comprehend programs than BEGIN-END pairs surrounding compound statements.
URLhttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/spe.4380130908/abstract
DOI10.1002/spe.4380130908