Many tools designed to help programmers view and manipulate source code exploit the formal structure of the programming language. Language-based tools use information derived via linguistic analysis to offer services that are impractical for purely text-based tools. In order to be effective, however, language-based tools must be designed to account properly for the documentary structure of source code: a structure that is largely orthogonal to the linguistic but no less important. Documentary structure includes, in addition to the language text, all extra-lingual information added by programmers for the sole purpose of aiding the human reader: comments, white space, and choice of names. Largely ignored in the research literature, documentary structure occupies a central role in the practice of programming. An examination of the documentary structure of programs leads to a better understanding of requirements for tool architectures.
%0 Journal Article
%1 VanDeVanter2002
%A Van De Vanter, Michael L.
%D 2002
%J Information and Software Technology
%K programming source style code_quality conventions typographic
%N 13
%P 767--782
%R 10.1016/S0950-5849(02)00103-9
%T The Documentary Structure of Source Code
%V 44
%X Many tools designed to help programmers view and manipulate source code exploit the formal structure of the programming language. Language-based tools use information derived via linguistic analysis to offer services that are impractical for purely text-based tools. In order to be effective, however, language-based tools must be designed to account properly for the documentary structure of source code: a structure that is largely orthogonal to the linguistic but no less important. Documentary structure includes, in addition to the language text, all extra-lingual information added by programmers for the sole purpose of aiding the human reader: comments, white space, and choice of names. Largely ignored in the research literature, documentary structure occupies a central role in the practice of programming. An examination of the documentary structure of programs leads to a better understanding of requirements for tool architectures.
@article{VanDeVanter2002,
abstract = {Many tools designed to help programmers view and manipulate source code exploit the formal structure of the programming language. Language-based tools use information derived via linguistic analysis to offer services that are impractical for purely text-based tools. In order to be effective, however, language-based tools must be designed to account properly for the documentary structure of source code: a structure that is largely orthogonal to the linguistic but no less important. Documentary structure includes, in addition to the language text, all extra-lingual information added by programmers for the sole purpose of aiding the human reader: comments, white space, and choice of names. Largely ignored in the research literature, documentary structure occupies a central role in the practice of programming. An examination of the documentary structure of programs leads to a better understanding of requirements for tool architectures.},
added-at = {2009-06-08T18:02:48.000+0200},
author = {{Van De Vanter}, Michael L.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2344a769a3f1e4ad30d5a50e320744d29/sjbutler},
doi = {10.1016/S0950-5849(02)00103-9},
interhash = {892177d298e4d68859b09b3ebe62ea52},
intrahash = {344a769a3f1e4ad30d5a50e320744d29},
journal = {Information and Software Technology},
keywords = {programming source style code_quality conventions typographic},
number = 13,
pages = {767--782},
timestamp = {2009-06-08T18:02:48.000+0200},
title = {The Documentary Structure of Source Code},
volume = 44,
year = 2002
}