APPLYING HYPERTEXT STRUCTURES TO SOFTWARE DOCUMENTATION

Software documentation represents a critical resource to the successfu l functioning of many enterprises. However, because it is static, docu mentation often fails to meet the needs of the many diverse users who are required to consult it on a regular basis in the course of their d aily work. Software documentation is a rich resource that has not been fully exploited. Treatment of software documentation presents a numbe r of interesting problems that require a blend of information retrieva l and hypertext techniques for their successful solution. The evolving nature of a software project and the diverse demands on its documenta tion present an especially challenging environment. This is made even more challenging by the variety of information resources, ranging from formal specification languages to source code, that must be integrate d into a coherent whole for the purpose of querying. In this paper we discuss work in progress at the University of Virginia. We consider th e issues involved with automating the management of software documenta tion to better increase its utility. We describe a prototype system, S LEUTH, currently under investigation as a vehicle for software documen tation management. The prototype maintains software documentation as a hypertext with typed links for the purpose of browsing by users with varying needs. These links are generated mechanically by the system an d kept accurate under update. Appropriate authoring tools provide the system with the information it needs for this maintenance function. Ad hoc querying is provided over the documentation and hypertext documen ts are synthesized in response to these queries. (C) 1997 Elsevier Sci ence Ltd.