Metric

Elementary metrics measure patterns whose occurrences (in a product or process) can be counted. We need to decompose this notion further to avoid an explosion of the number of elementary metrics. For example the features of a class can be classified along several lines:

• Some are attributes (object fields), others are routines (algorithms).
• Some are inherited from a parent, others immediate (defined in the class).
• Some are exported, others secret

and so on.

If you want to perform measurements on a system that you are building, the scopes of interest are the first four listed: Feature, Class, Cluster and System. Information on either of these scopes will be provided by the development environment (as with EiffelStudio 5.x); alternatively, you could get it simply by parsing the source of your system.

Users may want to archive the result of the system they are working on. To create an archive is basically the same as saving a measure .

See Also: See Also
Comparing to an archive

The main goal of archives is comparing archives one to another. In order to compare your project to an archived file, you must select the Metric archive tab of the metric tool.

The goal is to load the archive of a (preferably different) project, to compare the archived measures to the system's. You can select your current archive or any other archive, against a reference archive file.

Once the archives are selected, click the Compare button to start the comparison.

To define a derived metric, you must select the Metric Definition tab and click the New metric button. A menu appears asking you the kind of metric you want to define. Select Basic metric and then the type of the results you are looking for (i.e. Class, Feature, Line, ...). Once done, you can perform the following steps:

1. Enter a name for the metric in the "Name" field. Next to the field you will see the type of metric as well as the unit for this metric.
2. Enter a description for the metric.

To define a ratio metric, you must select the Metric Definition tab and click the New metric button. A menu appears asking you the kind of metric you want to define. Select Ratio metric. Once done, you can perform the following steps:

1. Enter a name for the metric in the "Name" field. Next to the field you will see the type of metric as well as the unit for this metric.
2. Enter a description for the metric.