LaSSIE: a knowledge-based software information system

The authors discuss the important problem of invisibility that is inherent in the task of developing large software systems. It is pointed out that there are no direct solutions to this problem; however, there are several categories of systems-relational code analyzers, reuse librarians, and project management databases-that can be seen as addressing aspects of the invisibility problem. It is argued that these systems do not adequately deal with certain important aspects of the problem of invisibility-semantic proliferation, multiple views, and the need for intelligent indexing. A system called LaSSIE, which uses knowledge representation and reasoning technology to address each of these three issues directly and thereby help with the invisibility problem, has been built. The authors conclude with an evaluation of the system and a discussion of open problems and ongoing work