A semantic browser for object oriented program development

Abstract

Object-oriented methods allow programmers to construct software with a simple and uniform structure. Object-oriented programs should be simple to maintain and extend. Source code browsers are not sufficient for understanding object-oriented programs. The authors have combined a strongly-typed object-oriented language with an integrated, interactive development environment. For several reasons, they designed the compiler as an integral component of the environment. Coupling the compiler and the browser simplifies symbol table management in the compiler. Conversely, the same coupling ensures that information is semantically checked before the browser displays it. Also, programmers do not have to understand the class hierarchy because the compiler creates class views.<>