Documenting software systems with views

Scott R. Tilley*, Hausi A. Muller, Mehmet A. Orgun

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference proceeding contributionpeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Software professionals rely on internal documentation as an aid in understanding programs. Unfortunately, the documentation for most programs is usually out-of-date and cannot be trusted. Without it, the only reliable and objective information is the source code itself. Personnel must spend an inordinate amount of time exploring the system by looking at low-level source code to gain an understanding of its functionality. One way of producing accurate documentation for an existing software system is through reverse engineering. This paper outlines a reverse engineering methodology for building subsystem structures out of software building blocks, and describes how documenting a software system with views created by this process can produce numerous benefits. It addresses primarily the needs of the software engineer and technical manager as document users.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 10th Annual International Conference on Systems Documentation, SIGDOC '92
Place of PublicationNew York
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Pages211-219
Number of pages9
ISBN (Print)0897915321
Publication statusPublished - 1993
Externally publishedYes
EventProceedings of the 10th Annual International Conference on Systems Documentation - SIGDOC'92 - Ottawa, Ont, Can
Duration: 13 Oct 199216 Oct 1992

Other

OtherProceedings of the 10th Annual International Conference on Systems Documentation - SIGDOC'92
CityOttawa, Ont, Can
Period13/10/9216/10/92

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