Welcome! 

Thank you for participating in my study of elegance in software.

The goal of this study is to investigate how people perceive elegance in software and what common characteristics are found in software that is considered elegant. Study participants are asked to provide information about how they perceive various characteristics of a small collection of sample programs. This data will drive an analysis of what, if any, relationship exists between the participants' evaluations of the sample programs and their characteristics.

At the beginning of the survey I ask that you provide some basic information about yourself. This information will be used to see if and how the perception of elegance varies between people. All questions are optional and all answers will be kept strictly confidential.

Following the demographic questions you will be presented with the descriptions of the twelve criteria on which each sample program will be evaluated. You are asked to provide values ranging from "Not at all" to "Very much" for each criterion. These descriptions are also made available on each page of the survey.

After that, the real fun begins! There are four problems presented and five solutions to each problem. For each problem, first review the problem description; then, review each of the provided solutions to that problem and rate each of them on the twelve criteria provided.

Thank you for participating in this study! If you have any questions or other feedback feel free to contact me at tbriggs@umassd.edu.

Evaluation Criteria Descriptions

The twelve evaluation criteria for this study fall into four groups. These descriptions will also be available on each evaluation form.

Group 1: Implementation

Group 2: External Elegance

Group 3: Internal Elegance

Group 4: Overall

Problem 1 - Multiples of 3 or 5

Problem Description

If we list all the natural numbers below 10 that are multiples of 3 or 5, we get 3, 5, 6 and 9. The sum of these multiples is 23. Find the sum of all the multiples of 3 or 5 below 1000.

Solution 1

Click here to view the first solution to problem 1. Then enter your ratings in the table below.

Problem 1 - Multiples of 3 or 5

Problem Description

If we list all the natural numbers below 10 that are multiples of 3 or 5, we get 3, 5, 6 and 9. The sum of these multiples is 23.Find the sum of all the multiples of 3 or 5 below 1000.

Solution 2

Click here to view the second solution to problem 1. Then enter your ratings in the table below.

Problem 1 - Multiples of 3 or 5

Problem Description

If we list all the natural numbers below 10 that are multiples of 3 or 5, we get 3, 5, 6 and 9. The sum of these multiples is 23.Find the sum of all the multiples of 3 or 5 below 1000.

Solution 3

Click here to view the third solution to problem 1. Then enter your ratings in the table below.

Problem 1 - Multiples of 3 or 5

Problem Description

If we list all the natural numbers below 10 that are multiples of 3 or 5, we get 3, 5, 6 and 9. The sum of these multiples is 23.Find the sum of all the multiples of 3 or 5 below 1000.

Solution 4

Click here to view the fourth solution to problem 1. Then enter your ratings in the table below.

Problem 1 - Multiples of 3 or 5

Problem Description

If we list all the natural numbers below 10 that are multiples of 3 or 5, we get 3, 5, 6 and 9. The sum of these multiples is 23.Find the sum of all the multiples of 3 or 5 below 1000.

Solution 5

Click here to view the fifth solution to problem 1. Then enter your ratings in the table below.

Thank you for evaluating these solutions to Problem 1 - Multiples of 3 and 5.

When you click the Submit button below you will be taken to Part 2 of this survey where you will be asked to evaluate solutions to Problem 2 - Even Fibonacci Numbers.