Typographic style is more than cosmetic

1 May 1990

journal article
Published by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in Communications of the ACM

Vol. 33 (5) , 506-520
https://doi.org/10.1145/78607.78611

Abstract

There is disagreement about the role and importance of typographic style (source code formatting and commenting) in program comprehension. Results from experiments and opinions in programming style books are mixed. This article presents principles of typographic style consistent and compatible with the results of program comprehension studies. Four experiments demonstrate that the typographic style principles embodied in the book format significantly aid program comprehension and reduce maintenance effort. —Authors' Abstract

Keywords

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