Name
Abstract | ||
|---|---|---|
Making changes safely to programs requires program comprehension and satisfaction of the information needs of software maintainers. In this paper we provide insights into improving hypertext-based software maintenance support by analyzing those information needs. There exists a series of four earlier, detailed-level empirical studies on the information needs of professional C program maintainers. We focus on these studies, synthesize their results and determine sources from which the required information might be attained. An experimental research tool, the HyperSoft system, is used to demonstrate the satisfaction of information needs and the system is analytically evaluated against the needs explored by the empirical studies. HyperSoft is based on our transient hypertext approach for software maintenance support. HyperSoft provides automatically generated hypertextual access structures and software visualizations. The results show that transient hypertext is a well-suited representational form of the typically required versatile information. The discussion also covers related tools and the main features for providing the information required by maintainers are identified. The results show that the focus areas of these tools vary considerably. |
Year | DOI | Venue |
|---|---|---|
2004 | 10.1002/smr.292 | Journal of Software Maintenance |
Keywords | Field | DocType |
software maintenance support,hypertext-based software maintenance support,versatile information,required information,professional c program maintainers,software maintainers,information need,hypertext support,hypersoft system,software visualization,detailed-level empirical study,reverse engineering,program slicing | Program slicing,Hypertext,World Wide Web,Information needs,Systems engineering,Computer science,Reverse engineering,Software,Software maintenance,Program comprehension,Empirical research | Journal |
Volume | Issue | ISSN |
16 | 3 | 1532-060X |
Citations | PageRank | References |
8 | 0.75 | 47 |
Authors | ||
3 | ||
Name | Order | Citations | PageRank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jussi Koskinen | 1 | 122 | 13.44 |
| Airi Salminen | 2 | 241 | 30.02 |
| Jukka Paakki | 3 | 341 | 25.26 |