Guest editorial

Program comprehension is a vital software engineering and maintenance activity. It plays a critical role in facilitating reuse, inspection, maintenance, reverse engineering, reengineering, migration, and extension of existing software systems. The International Workshop on Program Comprehension (IWPC) provides a high-quality venue for researchers and industry practitioners to present and discuss both the state-of-the art and the state-of-the-practice in the general area of program comprehension. IWPC typically has a technical papers track in parallel sessions, several working sessions, and in recent years an additional tool demonstration session in which the latest research prototypes are presented to a large audience. The number of participants typically ranges from 80–100 attendees every year. IWPC is in its transition phase from an established workshop to a full international conference and in 2006 it has changed to ICPC—the International Conference on Program Comprehension. In 2005, there were 54 technical paper submissions (the largest ever number of submissions to IWPC). Each submission was reviewed by at least three members of the program committee, and many papers received four reviews. On the basis of these reviews the Program Chairs accepted 24 full papers and four short papers for inclusion in the proceedings and presentation in the technical program.