Generative software complexity and software understanding

• Introduction of a software complexity metric underlying software generation.
• Generative software complexity is the Kolmogorov complexity of software.
• Discussion of generative complexity as an understandability metric.
• Explanation of the emergence of domain-specific concepts.

Taking generative software development as our point of departure, we introduce generative software complexity as a measure for quantifying the structural complexity of software. After explaining that it is the same as Kolmogorov complexity, we discuss its merits from the viewpoint of software understanding. The results obtained are in many ways unsatisfactory, but sufficiently intriguing to warrant further work.