HOW TO WRITE COMMENTS SUITABLE FOR AUTOMATIC SOFTWARE INDEXING

This paper proposes a strategy for writing the comments (that is, natu ral-language text) embedded in the source code of software components. The novelty of the strategy is that it suggests to proceed step by st ep starting from given specifications. At the end of the writing proce ss we have, besides the comments themselves, a set of indices forming a short description of the software component (its profile), which is much easier to manipulate than the full text. By storing profiles into a database a software catalog is built. The availability of software catalogs is strategic to locate reusable components matching specific requirements. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.