Chunks: A basis for complexity measurement

Abstract The state of the art in psychological complexity measurement is currently at the same stage as weather forecasting was when early Europeans based their predictions on portents of change. Current direct measures of program characteristics such as operator and operand counts and control flow paths are not based on convincing indicators of complexity. This paper provides justification for using chunks as a basis for improved complexity measurement, describes approaches to identifying chunks, and proposes a chunk-based complexity measure.

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