Understanding Object-Oriented Systems Through Visualization

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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. ***