Managing a multi-file, multi-language software repository for program comprehension tools: a generic approach

Software repositories that provide a basis for software comprehension or reengineering tools usually have to represent a huge number of documents of different types bound into a web of many kinds of relationships. The flexibility and the structural properties of a software repository are crucial for its use. This paper presents a repository approach that allows to set up, fill and update a software repository where the documents are represented as a highly integrated structure. The repository schema is described by a user defined, object based conceptual model. The integration of new documents into the existing repository is described by declarative rules. The repository was implemented as part of the GUPRO project