Bad fixes, change specifications, and linguistic constraints on problem diagnosis
Pages 74 - 78
Abstract
Analyzing, diagnosing, and proposing fixes to problems in complex software is essentially a linguistic activity: we think in languages such as C and English, we analyze written problem reports, we read listings. In cognitive psychology and interpretation theory, the linguistic constraints upon cognition are well established; but with the exception of those authors working within the field of Speech Act Theory, little has been said about how these constraints affect software problem diagnosis or what we can do to overcome these constraints. This paper examines some of the linguistic aspects of software problem analysis, showing how these may contribute to the bad fix, and then describes a change specification procedure specifically designed to help development teams overcome some of the liabilities of interpreting complex software failures.
References
[1]
1 J. Martin and C. L. McClure, Software Maintenance: The Problem and Its Solutions, Prentice Hall, New York 1983.
[2]
2 R. B. Grady, Practical Software Metrics for Project Management and Process Improvement, Prentice Hall, New Jersey 1992.
[3]
3 C. L. McClure, Managing Software Development and Maintenance, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York 1981.
[4]
4 W. S. Humphrey, Managing the Software Process, Addison-Wesley, Reading (MA) 1989.
[5]
5 T. Gilb, Software Metrics, Winthrop Publishers, Cambridge (MA) 1977.
[6]
6 P. F. Wilson, L. D. Dell, and G. F. Anderson, Root Cause Analysis: A Tool for Total Quality Management, ASQC Quality Press, Milwaukee (WI) 1993.
[7]
7 H.-G. Gadamer, Truth and Method, Trans. G. Barden & J. Cumming, The Seabury Press, New York 1975.
[8]
8 H.-G. Gadamer, "The Universality of the Hermeneutical Problem," Philosophical Hermeneutics, Trans. & Ed. David E. Linge, Univ. of California Press, Berkeley 1977, pp. 3-17.
[9]
9 H.-G. Gadamer, "Semantics and Hermeneutics," Trans. P. Christopher Smith, Philosophical Hermeneutics, Ed. David E. Linge, Univ. of California Press, Berkeley 1977, pp. 82-94.
[10]
10 M. Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, Trans. Colin Smith, The Humanities Press, New Jersey 1978.
[11]
11 M. Merleau-Ponty, "Indirect Language and the Voices of Silence," Signs, Trans, Richard C. McCleary, Northwestern Univ. Press, Evanston (IL) 1964, pp. 39-83.
[12]
12 T. Kuhn, "Second Thoughts on Paradigms," The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change, Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago 1977, pp. 293-319.
[13]
13 P. Feyerabend, Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge, Thetford Press Limited, Thetford (GB) 1978.
[14]
14 J. Kockelmans, Phenomenology and Physical Science, Duquesne Univ. Press, Pittsburgh (PA) 1966.
[15]
15 P. A. Heelan, "Hermeneutical Phenomenology and the Philosophy of Science," Gadamer and Hermeneutics, Ed. Hugh J. Silverman, Routeledge, Chapman and Hall, New York 1991, pp. 213-228.
[16]
16 P. Achinstein, "The Pragmatic Character of Explanation," Explanation, Ed. David-Hillel Ruben, Oxford Univ. Press, New York 1993, pp. 326-344.
[17]
17 H. Margolis, Patterns, Thinking, and Cognition: A Theory of Judgement, Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago 1987.
[18]
18 P. Ricoeur, "Structure, Word, Event" Trans. Robert Sweeney, The Conflict of Interpretations: Essays in Hermeneutics, Ed. Don Ihde, Northwestern Univ. Press, Evanston (IL) 1974, pp. 79-96.
[19]
19 P. Ricoeur, Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning, The Texas Christian Univ. Press, Fort Worth (TX) 1976.
[20]
20 M. P. Singh, A Semantics for Speech Acts, MCC Technical Report, CARNOT-138-92, Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp., Austin (TX) 1992.
Index Terms
- Bad fixes, change specifications, and linguistic constraints on problem diagnosis
Recommendations
Impact analysis in the software change process: a year 2000 perspective
ICSM '96: Proceedings of the 1996 International Conference on Software MaintenanceSoftware change impact analysis has gained considerable attention with recent challenges of the Year 2000 Date situation. As the software community recognizes the growing need to identify consequences of these changes, impact analysis is making its way ...
How bad is the problem of PP-attachment?: a comparison of English, German and Swedish
Prepositions '06: Proceedings of the Third ACL-SIGSEM Workshop on PrepositionsThe correct attachment of prepositional phrases (PPs) is a central disambiguation problem in parsing natural languages. This paper compares the baseline situation in English, German and Swedish based on manual PP attachments in various treebanks for ...
Morphosyntactic Constraints in the Acquisition of Linguistic Knowledge for Polish
Aspects of Natural Language ProcessingMany approaches to the construction of language tools and acquisition of linguistic knowledge from corpora assume the application of some robust shallow parser. Construction of such a parser is difficult in the case of inflective languages with relaxed ...
Comments
Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.Information & Contributors
Information
Published In
Copyright © 1996 Author.
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery
New York, NY, United States
Publication History
Published: 01 March 1996
Published in SIGSOFT Volume 21, Issue 2
Check for updates
Author Tags
Qualifiers
- Article
Contributors
Other Metrics
Bibliometrics & Citations
Bibliometrics
Article Metrics
- 0Total Citations
- 50Total Downloads
- Downloads (Last 12 months)30
- Downloads (Last 6 weeks)7
Reflects downloads up to 16 Nov 2024
Other Metrics
Citations
View Options
Login options
Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.
Sign in