A Framework of Program Comprehension Based on Simulation on Domain World Model

Abstract

In this paper we propose a framework of program comprehension based on a domain world model. Many researchers have developed plan recognition methods or/and some structural graphs and have tried to construct frameworks of program comprehension mainly based on pattern matching to abstract templates. Certainly, those methods are effective to identify which role block each instruction belongs to or to clarify its structural position in the flow or hierarchy of the program. But we think that we can capture rather surface meaning of the program by those approarches. Program is a description of operations to solve problems in some domain worlds. Therefbre, it is important to analyze what effect each instruction have on the domain world operated by the program. From this standpoint, we think that program comprehension system should have some domain world model and the ability to simulate the behavior of the world on the model and to interpret the meaning of instruction based on the result of the simulation. In this paper, we propose such a new, simulation-based framework of program comprehension.