The Metrics of Multiple Inheritance and the Reusability of Code – Java and C++

One of the fundamental notions in object-oriented systems is multiple inheritance which enables developers to combine concepts and increase the reusability of resulting software. Two of the widely used object-oriented languages are Java and C++ that each has its own mechanism to implement multiple inheritance. The paper investigates the difference between the two languages’ implementation of this important notion. CK software metrics have been widely used to measure object-oriented software designs and implementations and are well-known in the software engineering community. In this paper they are used to assess the two implementations of an object-oriented system having multiple inheritance relationships and in particularly the reusability factor. Reusability is evaluated using a combination of the CK metrics that have been designed specifically for the purpose. The results clearly show that the Java implementation compared to C++ has increased coupling and software complexity and lacks cohesion resulting to reduced software reusability.