Survey of the influence of programming constructs and mechanisms on software quality

The quality of a software product is usually evaluated by using a set of Software Quality Metrics (SQM) including correctness, efficiency, flexibility, maintainability, reusability, testability, and so on. Software products can be viewed as the composition of a series of programs using programming constructs and mechanisms existing in the programming language. One of the important factors that affects software quality is the programming language used in the software implementation. In this paper, we discuss the influence of programming constructs and mechanisms on software quality. Specifically, we propose an SQM that reflects the influence of programming constructs and mechanisms on software quality. How each of these programming constructs and mechanisms affects software quality will be discussed in detail. To support our discussion, four programming languages have been chosen to compare their abilities in supporting software quality by examining their programming constructs and mechanisms. From the evaluation results, programming constructs and mechanisms that support/damage software quality are identified.