Systems and methods for managing data associated with computer code

Abstract

Methods and arrangements to manage comment data that is associated with computer executable code are provided. Comment data associated with a line or lines of executable code can be stored, and a tag can be assigned to the comment data or the line(s) of code. When it is desired to locate information about lines of code, tags allow for an improved way to search for the desired lines of code. Thus, in response to a user query for information, a search engine can locate a specific tag or groups of tags and display code and comments associated with the located tag(s).

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION [0001] The present disclosure relates to the field of computers and more particularly, to methods and arrangements for managing data associated with lines of code in a computer program. BACKGROUND [0002] The popularity of computers continues to grow. In fact, computers have become very important tools for many individuals and many businesses throughout the world. One reason for such a proliferation in computer usage, is that computers can efficiently perform many tasks that heretofore were performed manually by humans with a pencil and paper. For example, adding numbers, writing papers, tracking inventory, tracking important dates, and sending mail, can be preformed more efficiently with the assistance of a computer. [0003] However, each task requires a computer to execute at least one set of instructions. Accordingly, a significant amount of computer executable instructions are commercially available to the public. These executable instructions are referred to by...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0016] The tags can be user defined and can be abbreviated such that a single character in the comments can provide a selectable link to additional information possibly stored in a database format. The tags can assist in classifying and indexing the comment data without taking up a significant amount of space on the display or creating “clutter” in the source code. In other embodiments, instead of an abbreviation, a tag can be a descriptive word. When the tag provides a selectable link, the tag can act as a selectable button, and when the selectable button is selected by a user, additional data can be retrieved from a database and displayed to provide more in-depth, often useful data to the user.

[0017] Such a data management method allows voluminous, unorganized and even cryptic comment data integrated with source code to be easily managed such that the comment data can be organized to provide meaningful information to an unfamiliar programmer or IDE user. The results of a search for tags can be displayed as lines of computer readable code and comment(s) with tags that are associated with the lines of code.

Problems solved by technology

These executable instructions are referred to by many names including computer programs, computer code, program code, computer software, computer instructions, applications, or simply “code.” Typical computer programs are relatively complex and it is difficult to understand how code manipulates a processor of a computer during every step of a process.

Often, when a computer program needs improvements, new programmers are assigned the task, but the new programmers are often unfamiliar with the intricacies of the existing program.

One major challenge that programmers face is to understand how specific functions within the existing software occur and when and where these specific functions occur.

It is nearly impossible for a programmer to improve or modify a program if the programmer cannot locate specific features of the code and understand how the code instructs the computer to perform.

Thus, comments are often non-uniform and hard to search with a text search, making sections of code hard to locate and hard to understand.

For example, IDEs and other development tools only provide limited management features for the voluminous, disorganized comments often found within source code.

Numerous authors with individual styles can cause serious non-uniformity in the comments because many programmers utilize their own abbreviations and jargon when making entries in the comments section.

More specifically, lines of code that have been developed over the years and released numerous times often contain so many comments that it is hard for a programmer to locate the desired code.

Some development tools provide a simple text search tool to perform textual searches of the comments but these tools are often useless when the comments include jargon and have a tenuous connection to the English language.

In fact in this situation, most programmers view the comments as useless clutter.

Thus, in many circumstances the available tools cannot locate desired materials, and programmers often cannot make effective use of the comments in a computer program.

Yet in mature code, comments can fill up significant amount of space on a display, “obscuring” the actual computer executable code.

However, when comments lack any logical order, or are not coherent, the comments will have limited usefulness.

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