Searching and using external types in an extensible software development environment

• Authors: Alexander Paar
• Venue: Proceedings of 2010 ICSE Workshop on Search-driven Development: Users, Infrastructure, Tools and Evaluation
• Year: 2010

Schema and ontology languages have proved to be useful for conceptualizing knowledge in a variety of applications. In many software projects, XML Schema Definition data types and ontological concept descriptions coexist with programming language class hierarchies. However, only programming language type definitions are fully integrated into today's software development environments. Support for external type systems is spotty. For programmers, it is particularly tedious to search type definitions in XML schema files and OWL ontologies, to browse external type hierarchies, to investigate external type members, and to analyze and comprehend the use of external type definitions in program code. In this work, it will be argued that improved search capabilities are required to ease the use of schema and ontology languages in software projects. Difficulties of searching type definitions in software project workspaces will be indicated. An extensible compiler framework will be outlined that facilitates the use of schema and ontology languages in C# programs. An Eclipse-based integrated development environment will be described that makes XML data types and OWL concept descriptions first-class citizens of the source code editor. Finally, identical search and (just in time) program analysis features for programming language and external type definitions will be suggested.