Semiautomatic deabbreviation of source programs

Abstract

Evidence suggests that using variable and procedure names consisting of whole natural-language words helps program comprehensibility. We describe a tool to help users make their programs more comprehensible and thus maintainable by suggesting replacements for the abbreviations in the programs. Its heuristics limit the search for possible deabbreviations to just a few good guesses. This is done by examining words in program comments and in a large English dictionary to recognize pieces of English words within multiword abbreviations. Experimental results show the tool is easy to use and results in significantly improved program comprehensibility