SHF: Small: RUI: Making Sense of Source Code: Improving Software through Information Retrieval

对企业和消费者来说，经济高效的软件构建变得越来越重要。考虑到软件不断增长的规模和复杂性，现代软件构建需要大量的工具支持。最近的工具通过使用信息检索(IR)来利用程序文本中的自然语言来补充传统的静态分析工具。IR以其在互联网上的搜索引擎使用而闻名，它包含了越来越多的适用于大型自然语言存储库的技术。使用IR的新工具解决了以前需要大量人力的问题。然而，为了获得IR技术的全部好处，所有软件构件(例如，需求和设计文档、测试计划以及源代码)的语言必须标准化。标准化使源代码中的词汇表与其他软件构件的词汇表保持一致。除了改进现有工具外，标准化还将鼓励开发对未来工具有用的新技术和新方法。成功的工具改进的实证研究将有助于工具的技术转移，以期提高程序员的生产率。除了技术目标之外，这项研究还通过让本科生直接参与科学研究以及将研究成果整合到课堂学习中来促进Loyola本科课程中的发现。

The cost-effective construction of software is increasingly important to businesses and consumers. Given software's ever-increasing size and complexity, modern software construction employs significant tool support. Recent tools complement traditional static analysis tools by exploiting the natural language found within a program's text through the use of Information Retrieval (IR). Best known for its use by search engines on the Internet, IR encompasses a growing collection of techniques that apply to large repositories of natural language. New tools using IR have tackled problems previously requiring considerable human effort. However, to reap the full benefit of IR techniques, the language across all software artifacts (e.g., requirement and design documents, test plans, as well as source code) must be normalized. Normalization align the vocabulary found in source code with that of other software artifacts. In addition to improving existing tools, normalization will also encourage the development of new techniques and methodologies useful in future tools. Empirical study of successful tool improvements will aid technology transfer of the tools expected to improve programmer productivity. Beyond its technical goals, this research promotes discovery in Loyola's undergraduate curriculum through the direct involvement of undergraduate students in scientific research and by integrating research results into classroom learning.