Understanding Object-Oriented Systems Through Visualization

面向对象的程序设计方法对软件开发和维护的方式产生了重大影响。程序员采用面向对象的方法是为了利用更好的数据抽象、通过继承重用和多态性。 然而，使面向对象范式具有吸引力的特性也使面向对象程序更加难以理解。当前大多数面向对象的软件开发环境和辅助工具提供文本接口，程序员可以通过该文本接口回答关于程序状态的查询并评估程序性能。这个项目的假设是，用于理解面向对象程序的文本工具，尽管绝对必要，但要么无法提供程序员所需的关于其代码的动态和全局行为的所有信息，要么它们以一种难以获取的方式提供信息。通过使用图形和动画，程序可视化为用户提供了对其代码的静态和动态的更完整的理解。 这个项目的目标是开发一个可视化框架，具有创新的图形视图，帮助程序员理解，分析，测试，调试和优化他们的代码。 这些视图说明了程序的重要细节，以及特定代码片段如何与整个程序相关的全局上下文。最初使用的技术称为信息壁画，它使用焦点加上下文显示来呈现非常大的程序事件轨迹。信息壁画工作的一个重要方面是识别程序执行中的模式。 ***

The object-oriented approach to program design has made a significant impact on the way software is developed and maintained. Programmers have adopted the object-oriented approach in order to take advantage of better data abstraction, re-use through inheritance, and polymorphism. However, the very features which make the object-oriented paradigm attractive also make object-oriented programs more difficult to understand. The majority of current object- oriented software development environments and aids provide textual interfaces through which programmers can answer queries about the program state and assess program performance. The hypothesis of this project is that textual tools for understanding object-oriented programs, although absolutely essential, either fail to provide all the information required by programmers about the dynamics and global behavior of their code, or they provide information in a manner that is cumbersome to acquire. Program visualization, through the use of graphics and animation, provides users with a more complete understanding of their code, both statically and dynamically. The goal of this project is to develop a visualization framework with innovative graphical views that assist programmers to understand, analyze, test, debug, and optimize their code. The views illustrate both important details about a program and the global context of how particular pieces of code relate to the entire program. An initial technique being used is called the Information Mural, which presents very large program event traces using a focus-plus-context display. One important aspect of the work with the Information Mural is to identify patterns in the execution of a program. ***