Estimating the impact of the programming language on the development time of a software project

An empirical and quantitative comparison of C, C++, and Java is carried out. The impact of each language on the development time of a fixed sample project is estimated. A new estimation method for the development time is applied which is based on probability theory. For the sample project, C++ and Java yield better estimates than C. Without training in object-oriented programming, the C++ estimates for the sample project are worse than the C estimates. The impact of the programming language on the development time cannot be described by a scale factor.