David C. Wyld et al. (Eds) : CSEN, AISO, NCWC, SIPR - 2015 pp. 01–10, 2015. © CS & IT-CSCP 2015 DOI : 10.5121/csit.2015.51401       Ron Coleman and Pritesh Gandhi Computer Science Department, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York, USA roncoleman@marist.edu pritesh.gandhi1@marist.edu ABSTRACT This paper studies a new, quantitative approach using fractal geometry to analyse basic tenets of good programming style. Experiments on C source of the GNU/Linux Core Utilities, a collection of 114 programs or approximately 70,000 lines of code, show systematic changes in style are correlated with statistically significant changes in fractal dimension (P0.0009). The data further show positive but weak correlation between lines of code and fractal dimension (r=0.0878). These results suggest the fractal dimension is a reliable metric of changes that affect good style, the knowledge of which may be useful for maintaining a code base. KEYWORDS Good programming style, fractal dimension, GNU/Linux Core Utilities 1. INTRODUCTION Good programming style is a way of writing source code. Although different style guides have different conventions, a survey of contemporary texts [1] [2] [3] [4] finds general agreement on three basic rules: use proper indentation, include documentation, and choose meaningful or mnemonic names. While style guides stress the importance of good style, especially for maintenance purposes, “good” is a value word and “style” connotes, among other things, form and taste. In other words, we propose source has potential elegance as a work of art like a painting or photograph and indeed, any given programming style, including an indecorous one, may be readily accessible without an in-depth understanding of how the code works or even what it does. In this view, source has aesthetic or sensori-emotional qualities. We are not suggesting aesthetic appeal in code should be an overarching goal of software, only that it plays a role in crafting and maintaining code as a best practice. Yet aesthetics present challenges. According to a modernist, Kantian view [5], aesthetics in general and notions of beauty and matters of taste in particular are thought to be subjective, relative, and presumably beyond the pale of automation. However, software engineers have sidestepped these dilemmas, asking not what is beauty in source but rather what is knowable about such beauty (e.g., good programming style), which can be incorporated in programs like the GNU/Linux command, indent [6], which beautifies C source by refactoring indentation, comments, and spacing. Tools like indent are a staple of modern software engineering. Unfortunately, these tools do not quantify the value of their beautifying regimes, as a consequence developers have had to resort to