A Hypothetical Dialogue Exhibiting a Knowledge Base for a Program-Understanding System
Cordell Green, David R. Barstow · 1975
A hypothetical dialogue with a fictitious program-understanding system is presented. In the interactive dialogue the computer carries out a detailed synthesis of a simple insertion sort program for linked lists. The content, length and complexity of the dialogue reflect the underlying programming knowledge which would be required for a system to accomplish this task. The nature of the knowledge is discussed and the codification of such programming knowledge is suggested as a major research area in the development of program-understanding systems.