[comp.lang.smalltalk] Presenting Smalltalk Code on Paper

madhu@hubcap.clemson.edu (M a d h u Raman) (04/12/89)

	Greetings:
		The powers that be ...want my code documented on
"Paper". Other than spewing out a meaningless printout, any suggestions
on documenting on "paper" so that the flavour of Smalltalk is not lost
on the reader. 
		With the browsers everything makes sense but how does one
document the code on paper and still give the reader the same understanding ?
Somebody must have tackled this problem about representation on paper. Any
pointers or suggestions are most welcome.
		
	madhu@hubcap.clemson.edu
	!gatech!hubcap!madhu

rsimonian@x102c.harris-atd.com (Simonian RP 66449) (04/12/89)

In article <5078@hubcap.clemson.edu> madhu@hubcap.clemson.edu (M a d h u  Raman) writes:
>		The powers that be ...want my code documented on
>"Paper". Other than spewing out a meaningless printout, any suggestions
>on documenting on "paper" so that the flavour of Smalltalk is not lost
>on the reader. 


We have a contract for the Tri-Services (Army, Navy, AF) where we are 
implementing an Automated Knowledge Acquistion tool in Smalltalk using,
believe it or not, full 2167 documentation standards.  The standards
are somewhat tailored, of course, but it's actually worked out quite
well.  If you are familiar with Government standards, we broke the 
system down into some high-level functional units (`CSCs'), such as the
help system, the system monitor, and so on.  Within each CSC, we followed
the 2167 standards for inputs, outputs, sequencing, and processing.

We are also providing class and method level details.  I wrote a documentation
generator (Smalltalk/V) which goes through a specified set of classes and
dumps out class and method information in a readable format, as you might
find in the Smalltalk/V reference manual.  Part of its job is to pull out
the first comment in a method.


Richard P. Simonian     407/984-6006
Natural Language Processing Group
Harris GISD, Melbourne, FL  32902             
Internet: rsimonian%x102c@trantor.harris-atd.com

bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry W. Kort) (04/13/89)

In article <5078@hubcap.clemson.edu> madhu@hubcap.clemson.edu
(M a d h u  Raman) writes:

 > The powers that be ...want my code documented on "Paper".  Other than
 > spewing out a meaningless printout, any suggestions on documenting on
 > "paper" so that the flavour of Smalltalk is not lost on the reader. 
 > 
 > With the browsers everything makes sense but how does one document 
 > the code on paper and still give the reader the same understanding?
 > Somebody must have tackled this problem about representation on paper. 
 > Any pointers or suggestions are most welcome.

Draw two diagrams.  First draw an inheritance hierarchy diagram
showing how the classes in your model are related with respect to
inheritance from their superclasses.  Then draw a decomposition
hierarchy diagram showing how your overall model is composed from
the classes.  Show the key messages between classes as arcs in the
decomposition diagram.  Annotate your diagram with a few sentences
explaining each class and each of the key messages.

--Barry Kort

david@cullsj.UUCP (David Taylor) (04/22/89)

In article <1925@trantor.harris-atd.com>, rsimonian@x102c.harris-atd.com (Simonian RP 66449) writes:

> We are also providing class and method level details.  I wrote a documentation
> generator (Smalltalk/V) which goes through a specified set of classes and
> dumps out class and method information in a readable format, as you might
> find in the Smalltalk/V reference manual.  Part of its job is to pull out
> the first comment in a method.

	Sounds handy. Is there any way of obtaining it?

JTangney@cup.portal.com (John Dominic Tangney) (04/24/89)

Ward Cunningham published a paper on documenting Smalltalk. See OOPSLA '87 
Proceedings.

Best of luck
John T