[Codenarc-user] new GMetrics rule about software stability?

[Hamlet D. <ham...@ca...>]

Hi all, 

I ran across an interesting blog post this morning from Michael Feathers: http://michaelfeathers.typepad.com/michael_feathers_blog/2011/01/measuring-the-closure-of-code.html

As a measure of risk, he graphed the number of version control commits against each file in the codebase. A file at revision 3 is less risky than a file at revision 300. The file at revision 300 is a code smell because all changes filter through that file. 

I have long wanted to see metrics on this version control revision number. A high number shows unstable code that, at a minimum, needs extensive test coverage, and possibly refactoring. 

Do you think GMetrics is the place for this code? Could we produce some sort of report showing the risk areas of a project based on revision number? And could you define heuristics for a CodeNarc rule based on this info? 

Or perhaps a different open source project is a better fit for this functionality. 

--
Hamlet D'Arcy
ham...@ca...