An Informal Study of Program Comprehension.

Abstract

This report describes work performed during the second year of research on a Program Reference Language. During this year, a study was conducted in which protocols of programmers studying a new program (with the intent of debugging it) were analyzed, both for the vocabulary used and for indications of strategies adopted in their efforts at program comprehension. A sampling of programmers' natural vocabulary for referencing programs was gathered and analyzed. Preliminary steps were taken towards using this data as the basis for the design of a formal query language for the PRL. The study also raised some new issues bearing on the implementation systems which use the PRL: individual differences imply the need for customization; context-sensitive information management is important; and useful user interface features were identified. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1984
Accession Number
ADA142224

Entities

People

  • B. P. Mccune
  • D. G. Shapiro
  • E. A. Domeshek
  • J. S. Dean

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • C4I
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Cognitive Science
  • Computer Languages
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Debugging
  • Engineering
  • Expert Systems
  • Information Systems
  • Language
  • Military Research
  • Natural Languages
  • Operating Systems
  • Software Development
  • User Interface

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Database Systems and Applications
  • Speech Processing/Speech Recognition.
  • Theoretical Analysis.