Abstract

A model called HyperSoft is presented, which can be used for viewing programs as hypertext. The main goal in developing the model has been to offer a framework for new program browsing tools to support the maintenance of legacy software in particular. The model consists of four layers: source code as such, its syntactic structure, hypertextual access structures based on the source code and its syntax, and the user interface for viewing and manipulating the source code and the access structures. The access structures are based on a general relational model of program dependencies. Both the hypertextual software model and the program dependency model are language independent and provide for a systematic and automated way of representing programs as different kinds of dependency graphs. The models are implemented in a program browsing tool which analyses C programs and automatically generates relevant hypertextual representations for them, according to requests of the maintainer.

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