NAME

       Analizo::Metric::NumberOfChildren - Number of Children (NOC) metric

DESCRIPTION

       The metric calculation is based on the following article and calculates the number of
       immediate subclasses subordinate to a class in the hierarchy.

       Article: Software Quality Metrics for Object-Oriented Environments by Linda H. Rosenberg
       and Lawrence E. Hyatt.

       See the paragraph about Number of Children in the article:

       The number of children is the number of immediate subclasses subordinate to a class in the
       hierarchy. It is an indicator of the potential influence a class can have on the design
       and on the system. The greater the number of children, the greater the likelihood of
       improper abstraction of the parent and may be a case of misuse of subclassing. But the
       greater the number of children, the greater the reusability since inheritance is a form of
       reuse. If a class has a large number of children, it may require more testing of the
       methods of that class, thus increase the testing time.