Semiautomatic Deabbreviation of Source Programs

Abstract

Evidence suggests that using variable and procedure names consisting of whole natural-language words helps program comprehensibility. We describe a tool to help users make their programs more comprehensible and thus maintainable by suggesting replacements for the abbreviations in the programs. Its heuristics limit the search for possible deabbreviations to just a few good guesses. This is done by examining words in program comments and in a large English dictionary to recognize pieces of English words within multiword abbreviations. Experimental results show the tool is easy to use and results in significantly improved program comprehensibility

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1994
Accession Number
ADA279855

Entities

People

  • Kari Laitinen
  • Neil C. Rowe

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Automatic
  • Biological Laboratories
  • Classification
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Dictionaries
  • Language
  • Natural Languages
  • Operating Systems
  • Programming Languages
  • Security
  • Semiautomatic
  • Software Development
  • Standards
  • Words (Language)

Readers

  • Computational Linguistics
  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis