APPLYING HYPERTEXT STRUCTURES
TO SOFTWARE DOCUMENTATION

James C. French 1 , John C. Knight, Allison L. Powell
{french | jck | alp4g}@cs.virginia.edu
Department of Computer Science 2 , University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903

Abstract. Software documentation represents a critical resource to the successful functioning of
many enterprises. However, because it is static, documentation often fails to meet the needs of the
many diverse users who are required to consult it on a regular basis in the course of their daily
work. Software documentation is a rich resource that has not been fully exploited.
Treatment of software documentation presents a number of interesting problems that require
a blend of information retrieval and hypertext techniques for their successful solution. The evolving 
nature of a software project and the diverse demands on its documentation present an especially 
challenging environment. This is made even more challenging by the variety of information
resources, ranging from formal specification languages to source code, that must be integrated
into a coherent whole for the purpose of querying.
In this paper we discuss work in progress at the University of Virginia. We discuss the issues
involved with automating the management of software documentation to better increase its utility.
We describe a prototype system, SLEUTH, currently under investigation as a vehicle for software
documentation management. The prototype maintains software documentation as a hypertext
with typed links for the purpose of browsing by users with varying needs. These links are generated 
mechanically by the system and kept accurate under update. Appropriate authoring tools provide 
the system with the information it needs for this maintenance function. Ad hoc querying is
provided over the documentation and hypertext documents are synthesized in response to these
queries.

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