The Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science A Knowledge Based Approach to Program Understanding

Program understanding plays an important role in nearly all software related tasks. This approach generates rigorous program documentation mechanically by combining and building on strengths of a practical program decomposition method, the axiomatic correctness notation, and the knowledge­ based analysis approaches. This text presents the knowledge-based approach to the automation of program understanding which plays an important role in nearly all software related tasks: it is vital to the development, maintenance and re-use activities, and is useful in improving the quality of software development. The approach generates program documentation mechanically by combining and building on the strengths of a practical program decomposition method, the axiomatic correctness notation, and the knowledge-based analysis approach. This text is aimed at: computer science students at the advanced graduate level and researchers and practitioners interested in software development, maintenance and re-use.