A Method Of Software Evaluation: The Case Of Programming Language Translators

By Henry C. Lucas, Jr.
1972| Working Paper No. 87

This paper presents a method for the specification and evaluation of software modules. The proposed strategy involves the use of existing documentation and synthetic or benchmark programs to evaluate a set of key characteristics that represent the module under consideration. The method is discussed and illustrated by considering the evaluation of programming language translators in detail. An example demonstrates how the method is applied to the evaluation of the popular WATFIV Fortran compiler.