Patterns of Knowledge in API Reference Documentation

• Published in: IEEE transactions on software engineering Vol. 39; no. 9; pp. 1264 - 1282
• Main Authors: Maalej, W., Robillard, M. P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.09.2013; IEEE Computer Society
• Subjects: API; API documentation; Application programming interface; Complement; content analysis; data mining; Documentation; empirical study; Encoding; grounded method; Java; Java (programming language); Knowledge; NET; pattern mining; Platforms; Programming; Programming languages; Reliability; Sociology; Software; software documentation; Studies; Syntax; Taxonomy; Vocabularies & taxonomies

Reading reference documentation is an important part of programming with application programming interfaces (APIs). Reference documentation complements the API by providing information not obvious from the API syntax. To improve the quality of reference documentation and the efficiency with which th...