VIFOR 2: a tool for browsing and documentation

During the maintenance of legacy systems, the structure and the documentation of the system usually deteriorates, and hence the maintenance becomes progressively harder and harder. In order to reverse this deterioration, it is essential to record the understanding of the system continually, before it is forgotten. It is also important to structure it in such a way that it can be easily accumulated and retrieved. The authors present a tool called VIFOR 2, which is oriented rewards this situation. The tool combines two technologies: browsing and hypertext documentation. The browser supports rapid navigation around the code. The layered hypertext supports the incremental recording and retrieval of the documentation on the desired level of abstraction (domain, algorithm, representation, etc.). They briefly discuss their own experience with the tool.