Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!news.misty.com!news.iecc.com!.POSTED.news.iecc.com!nerds-end From: Derek Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: Compilation Quotient (CQ): A Metric for the Compilation Hardness of Programming Languages Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2024 22:45:30 +0100 Organization: Compilers Central Sender: johnl%iecc.com Approved: comp.compilers@iecc.com Message-ID: <24-06-014@comp.compilers> References: <24-06-003@comp.compilers> <24-06-005@comp.compilers> <24-06-011@comp.compilers> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Injection-Info: gal.iecc.com; posting-host="news.iecc.com:2001:470:1f07:1126:0:676f:7373:6970"; logging-data="28997"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@iecc.com" Keywords: design, books Posted-Date: 12 Jun 2024 10:51:05 EDT X-submission-address: compilers@iecc.com X-moderator-address: compilers-request@iecc.com X-FAQ-and-archives: http://compilers.iecc.com In-Reply-To: <24-06-011@comp.compilers> Xref: csiph.com comp.compilers:3578 John, Anton, >> The other was that in the languages where it is >> hard to write a valid program, how much more likely is it that the program >> actually works once you get it to compile? -John] > > That is the promise of programming langauges that make it hard to get > a program to compile: get it to compile, and it is usually correct. I > am not aware of any empirical evidence that supports this promise. Requiring that variables are defined before use decreases incorrectness (which is not a marketable term). There is a tiny amount of evidence that strong typing may be a benefit https://shape-of-code.com/2014/08/27/evidence-for-the-benefits-of-strong-typing-where-is-it/ cost effectiveness of benefits is a question that researchers avoid (it smacks of grubby usefulness). If you are interested in evidence, check out My book, Evidence-based Software Engineering, which discusses what is currently known about software engineering, based on an analysis of all the publicly available data pdf+code+all data freely available here: http://knosof.co.uk/ESEUR/ If you know of any interesting software engineering data that I don't have, please tell me about it.