Re: "Density" of Ada 95 vs. Ada 83

[stt@houdini.camb.inmet.com (Tucker Taft)]

Ken Garlington (garlingtonke@lmtas.lmco.com) wrote:
: We are using the PRICE-S software cost estimating model for a project 
: where we intend to use Ada 95. We input some source-lines-of-code size 
: estimates based on existing Ada 83 work. PRICE-S generated cost 
: estimates for the new project which were higher than we expected.

: Apparently, PRICE-S assumes that the average Ada 95 application will be 
: "denser" than an Ada 83 application of equivalent functionality. That 
: is, it should take fewer lines of Ada 95 code to express the same 
: algorithms, data structures, etc. (on the average).

: Does anyone have some good quantitative information on whether Ada 95 is 
: "denser" than Ada 83 for a given domain, and it so, how much "denser" on 
: average? For that matter, does anyone have any qualitative analysis on 
: this issue? We are trying to decide how we should handle the PRICE-S 
: factors in our planning, so anything that would confirm or refute the 
: PRICE-S view of Ada 95 would be appreciated.

Capers Jones accumulates statistics on lines of code per function
point for hundreds of different languages, which is the inverse of 
density.  Check out his company's web site (unfortunately, I can't
remember the name of his company -- something like Software Research;
probably a Web search for "Capers Jones" would find it).

: This information might be available on one of the web servers, but I 
: haven't had time to do a search. Any pointers to such information would 
: be appreciated.

See above.

-Tucker Taft   stt@inmet.com   http://www.inmet.com/~stt/
Intermetrics, Inc.  Cambridge, MA  USA