Learning to use Ada 95 components using HTML linking

Abstract

We believe that one of the major obstacles to wide-spread software reuse is the difficulty in learning how to usc components from a software library. To aid in Wlderstanding components we built a tool that automatically embeds Hypertext Markup Language (HlML) links in Ada 95 specification files. Derived types are linked to their parent types, child packages arc linked to their parents, and all subprogram parameter and return types are linked to their declarations. We conducted a controlled experiment to determine if these links help progranuners to learn to use library components. Researchers have not formally investigated which comprehension techniques are effective and which are not. Our preliminary results indicate that our techniques are effective in aiding programmers to learn to use a reusable component.