Program comprehension

Program comprehension is a domain of computing science dealing with the processes (cognitive or others) used by software engineers and code analysis to understand programs (during their evaluation, before their modification).

Program comprehension is also known as program understanding.

Theories of program comprehension

Precursor work on program comprehension includes:

• Ruven Brooks' theory [1].
• Ted J. Biggerstaff's concept assignment problem [2].
• Anneliese von Mayrhauser's theory [3].

Conferences on program comprehension

Although major conferences in computing science welcome work on program comprehension, the International Conference on Program Comprehension [4] (formerly known as International Workshop on Program Comprehension until 2005 inclusive) is dedicated to research on program comprehension.

See also

• Program analysis (computer science)
• Program slicing