Abstract
This paper describes an effort to provide automated support for the interactive inquiry and explanation process that is at the heart of software understanding. A hypermedia tool called I-Doc allows software engineers to post queries about a software system, and generates focused explanations in response. These explanations are task oriented, i.e., they are sensitive to the software engineering task being performed by the user that led to the query. Task orientation leads to more effective explanations, and is particularly helpful for understanding large software systems. Empirical studies of inquiry episodes were conducted in order to investigate this claim: the kinds of questions users ask, their relation to the user’s task and level of expertise. The I-Doc tool is being developed to embody these principles, employing knowledge-based techniques. The presentation mechanism employs World Wide Web (WWW) technology, making it suitable for widespread use.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Brooks, R. 1983. Towards a theory of the comprehension of computer programs. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 18:543–554.
Corbi, T.A. 1990. Program understanding: Challenge for the 1990s. IBM Systems Journal, 28(2):294–306.
Herbsleb, J.D. and Kuwana, E. 1993. Preserving knowledge in design projects: What designers need to know. In INTERCHI’93.
Hill, W.C. and Miller, J.R. 1988. Justified advice: A semi-naturalistic study of advisory strategies. In CHI’88. ACM.
Hunsaker, PL., Coffey, R.E., and Cook, C.W. 1994. Management and Organizational Behavior. Austen Press.
Johnson, W.L., Feather, M.S., and Harris, D.R. 1992. Representation and presentation of requirements knowledge. IEEE Trans, on Software Engineering, 18(10): 853–869.
Lakhotia, A. 1993. Understanding someone else’s code: Analysis of experiences. Journal of Systems Software, 2:93–100.
Lazonder, A.W. and van der Meij, J. 1993. The minimal manual: Is less really more? Int. J Man-Machine Studies, 39:729–752.
Mayhew, D. 1992. Principles & Guidelines in Software User Interface Design. Prentice Hall.
McKeown, K.R. and Elhadad, M. 1991. A Contrastive Evaluation of Functional Unification Grammar for Surface Language Generation: A Case Study in the Choice of Connectives, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, MA, pp. 351–392.
Moore, J.D. 1995. Participating in Explanatory Dialogues. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Rajlich, V., Doran, J., and Gudla, R.T.S. 1994. Layered explanation of software: A methodology for program comprehension. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Program Comprehension.
Selfridge, PG. 1990. Integrating code knowledge with a software information system. In Proceedings of the 5th Annual Knowledge-Based Software Assistant Conference, Syracuse, NY, pp. 183–195.
Soloway, E., Pinto, J., Letovsky, S.I., Littman, D., and Lampert, R. 1988. Designing documentation to compensate for delocalized plans. Communications of the ACM, 31(11).
Wall, L. and Schwartz, R.L. 1991. Programming perl. O’Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, CA.
Wright, P. 1988. Issue of content and presentation in document design. In M. Helander, editor, Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, Elsevier Science Publishers B. V. (North Holland), Chap. 28, pp. 629–652.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Johnson, W.L., Erdem, A. (1997). Interactive Explanation of Software Systems. In: Setliff, D., Reubenstein, H. (eds) Knowledge-Based Software Engineering. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-34714-1_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-34714-1_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-9789-2
Online ISBN: 978-0-585-34714-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive