Software Visualization: From Theory to Practice

by Kang Zhang (Editor)

Overview

Software Visualization: From Theory to Practice was initially selected as a special volume for "The Annals of Software Engineering (ANSE) Journal", which has been discontinued. This special edited volume, is the first to discuss software visualization in the perspective of software engineering. It is a collection of 14 chapters on software visualization, covering the topics from theory to practical systems. The chapters are divided into four Parts: Visual Formalisms, Human Factors, Architectural Visualization, and Visualization in Practice. They cover a comprehensive range of software visualization topics, including

*Visual programming theory and techniques for rapid software prototyping and graph visualization, including distributed programming;

*Visual formalisms such as Flowchart, Event Graph, and Process Communication Graph;

*Graph-oriented distributed programming;

*Program visualization for software understanding, testing/debugging and maintenance;

*Object-oriented re-design based on legacy procedural software;

*Cognitive models for designing software exploration tools;

*Human comprehensibility of visual modeling diagrams in UML;

*UML extended with pattern compositions for software reuse;

*Visualization of software architecture and Web architecture for better understanding;

*Visual programming and program visualization for music synthesizers;

*Drawing diagrams nicely using clustering techniques for software engineering.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781402074486
Publisher:	Springer US
Publication date:	04/30/2003
Series:	The Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science , #734
Edition description:	2003
Pages:	442
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.04(d)

Table of Contents

	Contributing Authors	xiii
	Preface	xxiii
Part A	Visual Formalisms	1
1	Graph Grammars for Visual Programming	3
1.	Introduction	3
2.	Graph Grammars and DSVL Generation	5
2.1	Graph Grammars	5
2.2	The Reserved Graph Grammar Formalism	6
2.3	Generating DSVLs	9
2.4	Graph Parsing	12
3.	Grammar-Based Diagram Visualization	14
3.1	Spatial Grammar Extension	14
3.2	Graph Layout	16
3.3	Position Specification	18
3.4	Direction Specification	19
3.5	An Example: Flowcharts	20
4.	Other Applications	22
5.	Conclusions and Future Work	23
	References	25
2	Visualizing Program Behavior with the Event Graph	29
1.	Introduction	29
1.1	Software Engineering and Visualization	29
1.2	Usage of Graph Theory in Visualization	30
1.3	Addressed Solutions based on the Event Graph	30
2.	The Event Graph Model	31
2.1	Basic Definition	31
2.2	Event Attributes	32
2.3	Ordering Relation	33
2.4	Event Graph Generation	34
2.5	Event Graph Visualization	37
3.	Program Analysis with the Event Graph Model	38
3.1	Visual Representations	38
3.2	Detection of Program Failures	40
3.3	Detection of Computational Errors	41
3.4	Communication and Synchronization Errors	41
3.5	Visualization of the Detected Behavioral Characteristics	44
3.6	Time-Scale	45
4.	Advanced Analysis Activities	46
4.1	Group Identification	46
4.2	Pattern Matching	47
4.3	Loop Detection	52
5.	Summary	54
6.	Acknowledgments	55
	References	55
3	Flowchart Components for Program Visualization	59
1.	Introduction	59
2.	Flowchart Components	60
2.1	Definition of flowchart components	61
2.2	The component geometric information	62
2.3	An example	63
3.	Developing Flowchart Layout Functions	64
3.1	The method of developing layout functions	65
3.2	Layout functions for flowchart components	67
4.	Converting Source Code to Flowcharts	69
5.	Prototype Implementation	70
6.	Conclusion	74
	References	74
4	A Formalism for Graph-Oriented Distributed Programming	77
1.	Introduction	77
2.	Related Work	79
3.	The Graph-Oriented Programming Model	80
4.	The CDG Framework	83
5.	Operations on DPGs	86
5.1	Primitive Functions	87
5.2	Construction Operations	88
5.3	Inspection Operations	89
5.4	Replacement	90
6.	CDG Calculus	93
6.1	The Composition Calculus	93
6.2	Recursion Calculus	100
7.	Applications and a GOP Toolkit	102
7.1	Communication and Synchronization	102
7.2	Subgraph generation	102
7.3	Query	103
7.4	Example	103
7.5	A GOP Toolset	105
8.	Conclusions and Future Work	108
	References	108
Part B	Human Factors	111
5	Designing A Software Exploration Tool Using A Cognitive Framework	113
1.	Introduction	113
2.	Tool support for program comprehension	115
2.1	Cognitive models of program comprehension	116
2.2	Characteristics affecting comprehension strategies	118
2.3	Reducing cognitive overhead	119
3.	SHriMP Views	120
4.	Designing a tool using the Cognitive Framework	122
4.1	Supporting program comprehension strategies	122
4.2	Reducing cognitive overhead	134
5.	Summary	140
6.	Conclusions and Future Work	142
7.	Acknowledgments	143
	References	144
6	UML Class Diagrams: An Empirical Study of Comprehension	149
1.	Introduction	149
1.1	UML class diagrams	150
1.2	Experimental aims and definitions	151
2.	Experiment 1: Notation	151
2.1	Introduction	151
2.2	Notational variations	152
2.3	Methodology	152
2.4	Results	157
2.5	Analysis	160
2.6	Discussion (notational variations)	162
3.	Experiment 2: Layout	163
3.1	Introduction	163
3.2	Aesthetic variations	163
3.3	Methodology	166
3.4	Results	167
3.5	Analysis	168
3.6	Within-aesthetic Preference Data	169
3.7	Between-aesthetic preference data	172
3.8	Analysis	174
3.9	Discussion (aesthetic layout variations)	175
4.	Conclusion	176
5.	Acknowledgements	176
	References	177
7	Analysis of Visual Languages for Parallel Programming	179
1.	Introduction	179
2.	Related Works	182
3.	PCG Language and Editor	184
3.1	PCG Language	184
3.2	PCG Editor	186
4.	Usability Analysis	188
4.1	Abstraction Gradient	189
4.2	Closeness of Mapping	191
4.3	Consistency	192
4.4	Diffuseness / Terseness	193
4.5	Error-proneness	194
4.6	Hard Mental Operations	194
4.7	Hidden Dependencies	195
4.8	Premature Commitment	197
4.9	Progressive Evaluation	197
4.10	Role-expressiveness	197
4.11	Secondary Notation and Escape from Formalism	198
4.12	Viscosity	198
4.13	Visibility and Juxtaposability	198
5.	Empirical Study	201
5.1	Approach	202
5.2	Lecture	203
5.3	Case Study: Poisson Solver	204
5.4	Observations	205
5.5	Case Study: Matrix Multiply	208
5.6	Experiment: Same-different Judgment Test	209
5.7	Questionnaire	210
6.	Conclusion	212
7.	Acknowledgment	214
	References	214
Part C	Architectural Visualization	217
8	A Visual Architectural Approach to Maintaining Web Applications	219
1.	Introduction	219
1.1	Organization of Chapter	221
2.	The Components of a Web Application	221
3.	WebFlight: A Web Application	223
4.	Scenario: Modifying a Subsystem	226
5.	Visualizing a Web Application	229
5.1	Extracting the Facts	230
5.2	Abstracting and Merging the Extracted Facts	233
5.3	Generating the Architecture Diagrams	237
6.	Related Work	238
6.1	Forward Engineering	391
6.2	Reverse Engineering	239
7.	Conclusion	240
8.	Acknowledgments	240
	References	240
9	Understanding Architecture Through Structure and Behavior Visualization	243
1.	Introduction	243
2.	General Approach	245
3.	Analysis and Visualization Tool Basis	249
3.1	Entities and Relations Displayed	250
3.2	Filtering and Aggregation	253
3.3	Information Flow in the System	256
3.4	Classification	258
4.	Understanding the Components	260
5.	Understanding the Connectors	263
5.1	Static Analysis	265
5.2	Dynamic Analysis	268
5.3	Visualization	273
5.4	Detection of Further Patterns	274
6.	Evaluation	276
6.1	Pattern Detection in our Analyzer Tool	276
6.2	Pattern Detection in the SwingSet2 Example	278
7.	Related Work	279
8.	Conclusions and Future Work	282
	References	284
10	Design Pattern Compositions in UML	287
1.	Introduction	287
2.	Illustration of the Problem	289
3.	Notations for Pattern Composition	292
3.1	Venn Diagram-Style Pattern Annotation	293
3.2	Dotted Bounding Pattern Annotation	293
3.3	UML Collaboration Notation	295
3.4	Pattern: Role Annotations	295
4.	UML Extensions	296
5.	UML Profile for Design Patterns	302
6.	Case Study	303
7.	Conclusions	305
	References	306
Part D	Visualization in Practice	309
11	The BLOOM Software Visualization System	311
1.	Introduction	311
1.1	Objectives	312
1.2	System Architecture	313
2.	Gathering Information	315
2.1	Structural Data	316
2.2	Trace Data	317
3.	Data Analysis	323
3.1	Trace Data Analysis	323
3.2	Encoding Sequences	326
3.3	Summary	330
4.	Combining Analyses	330
4.1	The Data Model	330
4.2	The User Interface	332
4.3	Specifying Visualizations	338
4.4	Related Work	340
4.5	Experience with MURAL	341
5.	Visualizing the Result	342
5.1	HIVE and COMB	344
5.2	BUD	349
5.3	APIS	350
5.4	BEE	352
5.5	Experience	352
6.	Current and Future Work	353
7.	Acknowledgements	355
	References	356
12	Visual Program Visualization	359
1.	Introduction	359
2.	Clavia Nord Modular	362
2.1	Hardware	362
2.2	Software	363
2.3	Programming Environment	365
3.	Patch Maps	366
4.	Visualising Patch Cable Layouts	372
5.	Patch Cables	376
6.	Module Choice	377
6.1	Module Power	378
6.2	Module Size	379
7.	Module Layout	380
7.1	Module Position	381
7.2	Location Use	383
8.	Related Work	384
9.	Discussion and Conclusion	385
10.	Acknowledgements	387
	References	387
13	Use of Visualization to Aid Object-Oriented Redesign	389
1.	Introduction	389
2.	Related Studies	392
3.	Methodology	393
3.1	Abstracting OO Design From Program Structure and Pattern Matching	393
3.2	Identifying Original Code Related to Each Class	397
3.3	Refining OO design	400
4.	Case Study--An Inventory Management System	401
5.	Conclusions	410
	References	411
14	Effective Graph Visualization Via Node Grouping	413
1.	Introduction	413
2.	Previous Work	416
3.	Methodologies for the Application of Node Grouping in Graph Drawing	417
4.	Two Fast Techniques for Finding Small Cliques	418
4.1	The Triangle Technique	418
4.2	The Coloring Technique	422
4.3	Implementation and Experimental Results	424
5.	Applying Node Grouping to Force-Directed Drawing	425
6.	Applying Node Grouping to Orthogonal Drawing	429
7.	Conclusions	435
8.	Acknowledgements	436
	References	436
	Index	439