  In our research, we investigate the challenges that software engineers face
during program comprehension, particularly when debugging unfamiliar codebases.
We propose a novel tool, CodeCompass, to address these issues. Our study
highlights a significant gap in current tools and methodologies, especially the
difficulty developers encounter in effectively utilizing documentation
alongside code exploration. CodeCompass tackles these challenges by seamlessly
integrating documentation within the IDE, offering context-aware suggestions
and visualizations that streamline the debugging process. Our formative study
demonstrates how effectively the tool reduces the time developers spend
navigating documentation, thereby enhancing code comprehension and task
completion rates. Future work will focus on automating the process of
annotating codebases, creating sandbox tasks, and providing dynamic support.
These innovations could potentially transform software development practices by
improving the accessibility and efficiency of program comprehension tools.
