The PAS (Partitioned Annotations of Software) tool is a software application that support the creation and management
of documentation via partitioned annotations. PAS records a programmer's comprehension of a particular component of
a program and makes it available to the programming team as HTML web pages. PAS divides annotations for individual
software components into specialized partitions so programmers can easily associate and find the specific information
they need.
PAS is a stand-alone application that 1) provides programmers a means to document information about a program via annotations, and 2) parses the program files to construct a collection of partitioned annotations that are exported to html files. Users are then able to navigate through the program documentation using a standard browser.
PAS is a form of a programmer's notebook in which a programmer can record software understanding without regard for whether it was aquired in a top-down or bottom-up fashion, whether complete or partial. PAS are based on the existing structure of the software and do not require any restructuring. Each component of the code (i.e. class, algorithm or function) can have its own annotation that explains its meaning. These annotations are divided into several partitions, each describing the component form a different point of view.
PAS distinguishes between between mandatory partitions that are always generated and elective partitions that are generated on a user's demand. Mandatory partitions include:
Elective partitions vary from project to project and are based on the project needs. The user supplies the following information:
Based on this information, PAS parses the program files and creates skeleton PAS files in HTML format. The files contain blank spaces for any documentation the user might want to insert PAS relies on the following standards in the class designing; each class has two files: a header file that also contains all #include statements and a .cpp file that contains the bodies of the function members. During a change, classes can be deleted or new classes can be introduced. The next manual step will fill in newly generated skeletons with the fresh in-formation, and correct obsolete information in the partitions affected by the change. PAS also supports addition or deletion of elective partitions. If a specific elective partition is deemed obsolete, it can be removed from all PAS files. Similarly, PAS allows addition of new elective partitions whenever new needs arise in the project.
This tool was developed using Microsoft Visual C++ 2007. To compile and run PAS, please follow the next steps:
Please go to the PAS user manual for the on-line user manual.
If you have any questions on the PAS tool, please go to SEVERE Research Group web site for contact information.
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