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From: eachus@spectre.mitre.org (Robert I. Eachus)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Lines of documentation per LOC
Date: 25 Oct 94 19:00:56
Organization: The Mitre Corp., Bedford, MA.
Message-ID: <EACHUS.94Oct25190056@spectre.mitre.org>
References: <1994Oct25.170005.27711@sei.cmu.edu>
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In-reply-to: lpb@sei.cmu.edu's message of Tue, 25 Oct 1994 17:00:05 EDT
Xref: nntp.gmd.de comp.lang.ada:16172 comp.software-eng:19168
Date: 1994-10-25T19:00:56+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <1994Oct25.170005.27711@sei.cmu.edu> lpb@sei.cmu.edu (Loic Briand) writes:

 > Is there any document or source of information that provides
 > an accepted (?) ratio (lines of documentation / lines of code) for a 
 > software design document (SDD)?
 > Talking with people around me, I got values between 10 and 0.1, 
 > but no rationale other than: "the description has to be complete and
 > sufficient to allow modifications" and stuff like that.

   At first I couldn't believe that this was posted by someone at the
SEI.  Then I noticed it was posted by an industrial affiliate, who may
learn something while he is there.  And on second reading, I realized
he had gotten the right answers and dismissed them!  Maybe he won't
learn after all.

   The right amount of documentation is a function of the code!  I
have written pages of doumentation for a dozen line package.  I have
also written code with very sparse documentation--in some cases just a
mathematical sequence and its source.  Anyone looking for magic
numbers in this area is doomed to be frustrated.  Anyone working
for him is probably going to be damned to a Procrustean bed.
--

					Robert I. Eachus

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