The effectiveness of control structure diagrams in source code comprehension activities

• Published in: IEEE transactions on software engineering Vol. 28; no. 5; pp. 463 - 477
• Main Authors: Hendrix, D., Cross, J.H., Maghsoodloo, S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.05.2002; IEEE Computer Society
• Subjects: Algorithms; Automation; Cognitive models; Computer graphics; Computer programming; Computer programs; Computer science; Data visualization; Experiments; Performance evaluation; Reading; Software; Software engineering; Software libraries; Source code; Statistical analysis; Students; Tasks; Visualization
• ISSN: 0098-5589; 1939-3520
• DOI: 10.1109/TSE.2002.1000450

Recently, the first two in a series of planned comprehension experiments were performed to measure the effect of the control structure diagram (CSD) on program comprehensibility. Upper- and lower-division computer science and software engineering students were asked to respond to questions regarding the structure and execution of one source code module of a public domain graphics library. The time taken for each response and the correctness of each response was recorded. Statistical analysis of the data collected from these two experiments revealed that the CSD was highly significant in enhancing the subjects' performance in this program comprehension task. The results of these initial experiments promise to shed light on fundamental questions regarding the effect of software visualizations on program comprehensibility.