NavTracks: supporting navigation in software

Author

Singer, Janice ; Elves, Robert ; Storey, Margaret-Anne

Author_Institution

Inst. for Inf. Technol., Nat. Res. Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ont., Canada

fYear

2005

fDate

15-16 May 2005

Firstpage

173

Lastpage

175

Abstract

Any modification to a software system involves investigating the source code with the goal of understanding it. In turn, this investigation usually requires significant navigation effort. However, relatively little research has been conducted on software developer navigation patterns and tool support for improving navigation. Our research addresses this issue. We present NavTracks, a tool that supports browsing through software. NavTracks keeps track of the navigation history of software developers, forming associations between related files. These associations are then used as the basis for recommending potentially related files as a developer browses the software system.

Keywords

human computer interaction; object-oriented methods; reverse engineering; software tools; HCI; NavTracks; human computer interaction; software browsing; software developer navigation patterns; software navigation history; software system; software tool support; Cognitive science; Computer science; Documentation; Hierarchical systems; History; Human computer interaction; Navigation; Software systems; Software tools; Space exploration;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Program Comprehension, 2005. IWPC 2005. Proceedings. 13th International Workshop on

ISSN

1092-8138

Print_ISBN

0-7695-2254-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WPC.2005.25

Filename

1421032