Towards a Suite of Metrics for Advanced Composition Mechanisms

Software composition defines the interaction betwe n two or more modules. Advanced programming techniques, such as a spect-oriented programming and feature-oriented programming, support a wide ra nge of expressive composition mechanisms that promote a shift in the structure of pr grams: while complexity is presumably factored out of software modules, their composition code becomes more complex. In many cases, even a single composition s pecification tends to affect the structure and behavior of multiple modules. In this context, there is an increasing need for metrics that support the quantification of c mposition code properties. Without them, developers will not be able to analyz e and predict the impact of composition properties on key quality attributes, s uch as stability and reuse. This work proposes a suite of metrics which aims at supp orting the computation of composition code properties. Our preliminary evalua tion revealed that the proposed composition metrics were more indicative of reusabl e and stable modules than the existing modularity metrics. The superiority of com position metrics was observed from both global and module perspectives.