Norman Wilde
University of West Florida
Pensacola, Florida 32514, USA
e-mail: 
Suzanne W. Dietrich and Frank W. Calliss
Dept of Computer Science & Engineering
College of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Arizona State University
Box 875406
Tempe, AZ 85287-5406, USA
SINCE SOFTWARE ENGINEERS spend a large proportion of their time trying to understand computer programs, many tools have been proposed to help them with this task. The construction of such tools raises a series of specification and design issues and requires a careful choice among alternative user interfaces, tool architectures, and knowledge representations.
This paper describes and compares two such tools, the Extensible Dependency Analysis Tool Set (EDATS) and the Inter-Module Code Analysis system (IMCA). EDATS was developed as a project of the Software Engineering Research Center while IMCA is an ongoing research effort at Arizona State University.
A case study is presented showing how each tool would be used to support typical program comprehension tasks. Though the two tools have quite similar objectives, their designs are radically different, leading to interesting contrasts in flexibility and ease of use.
This report may be cited as SERC-TR-79-F, Software Engineering Research Center, University of Florida, CSE-301, Gainesville, FL 32611, December 1995.
Download a copy of this report in postscript format.