A Contrast Between Language Level Measures

Software science techniques have been used to provide a framework for evaluation of problem solving systems. In that effort, two methods for calculating the level of a language (L and L̂) were used, it was suspected that L̂, while adequate in that application, might be inferior to L. By using a set of hypothetical languagesj each with different intrinsic data structures and operators, it is shown here that when an inappropriate language is applied to some problems, L̂ may reflect an inaccurately large value for language level, and can sometimes be made to yield an arbitrary value. Since L is often as easily applied as L, and does not exhibit this anomalous behavior, it is suggested that its general use is to be preferred.