Abstract
Programming style guidelines and automated coding sytle analyzers have been
developed without a solid experimental or theoretical basis. In this paper
we make a distinction between typographic sytle characteristics and underlying
structural style content and show that this distinction aids in assessing the
influence of style factors. This distinction permits straightforward identification
of specific style factors and a better understanding of thier effect on program
comprehension. The results of our studies have a direct impact on automated
coding style assessment programs, programming standards, program maintainablity,
and code formatting tools.
