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An expert system for Cobol program debugging

The purpose of this research is to assess the feasibility of applying expert systems techniques for improved error control and productivity of commercial programming. Error control in programming: error detection, error removal and error prevention is a major problem for productivity (Jones,1986). Improved error control appears to offer substantial potential for improving programmer productivity. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and describe the structure of an expert systems model for COBOL debugging. COBOL was selected as part of this research due to its importance in commercial programming. The Data Processing Management Association's Educational Foundation has sponsored the development of a pilot model suitable for testing the feasibility of this research. This is a preliminary paper which is limited to the development of the expert systems model and it's rationale. As this is an early paper, feedback and suggestions are solicited.This paper is organized into two major sections. The first part reports on utilizing previous empirical research on COBOL error frequency to build a knowledge base of errors in programming. The second part of the paper is an analysis of an expert systems model in which the COBOL error frequency and debugging strategies are implemented on an experimental basis.