Documenting programs using a library of tree structured plans

An overview of a knowledge-based approach which helps in the mechanical documentation and understanding of computer programs is given. This approach performs mechanical annotation of loops by first decomposing them into fragments, called events. It then recognizes the high-level concepts, represented by the events, based on patterns, called plans, stored in a knowledge-base. The design and utilization of the plans are described in detail, and how to generalize their structure is discussed. The generalized tree structure can facilitate plan recognition and reduce the size of the knowledge-base. A case study on a real program of some practical importance, containing a set of 77 loops, has been performed. Results concerning the plans designed for this case study are given