Research Article Open Access

COMENTE+: A TOOL FOR IMPROVING SOURCE CODE DOCUMENTATION USING INFORMATION RETRIEVAL

Julio Cezar Zanoni1, Milton Pires Ramos1, Cesar Augusto Tacla2, Gilson Yukio Sato2, Gregory Moro Puppi Wanderley3 and Emerson Cabrera Paraiso3
  • 1 , Brazil
  • 2 UTFPR-Technological Federal University of Paraná, Brazil
  • 3 PUCPR-Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Brazil

Abstract

Document source code is seen as a boring time consuming task by several developers. However, a well-documented source code, allow developers to have a better visibility into what was and is being developed, helping, for example, the reuse of the code. This study presents a semi-automatic method for documentation of source code from the existing artifacts in a software project under development. The method aims to reduce developer’s workload, allowing them to work on other tasks of the project and/or ensure that the project deadlines will be met. The method, implemented in a tool, called Comente+, is capable of creating or updating comments into a source code from gathered information recovered from the project artifacts. To implement Comente+, we used an information retrieval approach. We performed some experiments with real data to validate this approach. For that, we created a special measure that estimates how well documented a source code is.

Journal of Computer Science
Volume 10 No. 5, 2014, 755-762

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3844/jcssp.2014.755.762

Submitted On: 17 April 2013 Published On: 4 January 2014

How to Cite: Zanoni, J. C., Ramos, M. P., Tacla, C. A., Sato, G. Y., Wanderley, G. M. P. & Paraiso, E. C. (2014). COMENTE+: A TOOL FOR IMPROVING SOURCE CODE DOCUMENTATION USING INFORMATION RETRIEVAL. Journal of Computer Science, 10(5), 755-762. https://doi.org/10.3844/jcssp.2014.755.762

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Keywords

  • Information Retrieval
  • Source Code Documentation
  • Small Teams