The Frequency Distribution of Operators in PL/1 Programs

Definite patterns in the distribution of operators in computer programs have been noted by investigators. Their models have explained other observed software phenomena. They have suggested possible relationships between programming and natural languages. These models do have notable deficiencies. A model is constructed that is based only on the number of distinct operators in the program and their occurrences. An operator is a symbol or combination of symbols that affects the value of an operand that is either variable or constant. An adequate model must be capable of estimating the number of occurrences of the most frequent operator as a function of the basic parameters of the program. It must be able to estimate the frequency of its most frequent operator as a function. A counting method is applied because it has an approach that is not meant to bias the basic software parameters in either direction. The current model is an improvement over those presented earlier. Formulas.