A DTD complexity metric

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a metric for measuring the complexity of a DTD. For the same purpose, different designers may create different DTDs. A complexity metric can assist us to evaluate and compare their different merits. Through the recognition of strongly connected components, the metric accommodates the recursive relationship of elements in a DTD. The metric presented here can be expressed in a simple and informal way involving the number of elements, connectors, appearance indicators and back edges.