The metric based compiler: a current requirement

This paper describes the situation in the use of software metrics for the development of software. Today many basic metrics - including code metrics - are applied in very different tools for the development of software. But the user is not sure to obtain the correct instructions for the most efficient implementation in the sense of the lowest psychological complexity. The application of the classical code metrics (Halstead's software science and McCabe's cyclomatic number) is not possible for all languages.Therefore it is necessary that the compiler writer or the compiler writing systems includes the meaningful code metrics in the process of the compiler construction. The compiler writer must know this metrics for "his" language.This paper gives some directions for the derivation of code metrics for different languages and their use as metric based software tools.