Relational views for program comprehension

Abstract

In this paper we describe UQ*, an integrated development environment that is currently under construction at the University of Queensland. Its architecture supports the definition of multiple documents and multiple document types, and allows the relationships that are implicit within the set of documents to be represented explicitly. We identify two techniques that aid program comprehension which require knowledge about the relationships that exist in and between documents. They are program dependency analysis and literate programming. Two simple examples are presented to illustrate the flexible definition of relations within such an architecture and the use of relations for presentation of and navigation through, various views of a program and its related documentation. These examples highlight the application of such an approach to program dependency analysis and literate programming.<>