A novel software visualisation model to support software comprehension

Abstract

Current software visualisation tools do not address the full range of software comprehension requirements. This paper proposes a novel software visualisation model for supporting object-oriented software comprehension that is intended to address the shortcomings of existing tools. We discuss the previous work that prompted us to develop this model. An initial model is then presented, based on multiple levels of abstraction, multiple perspectives of the software system, and the integration of statically and dynamically extracted information. We review the evaluation tasks used in our previous work and those from the software visualisation and comprehension literature to produce a refined set of evaluation tasks. We then use these tasks to perform an initial assessment of the proposed model. The refined model is then defined more formally. Finally, a concrete example of the use of the model to generate abstraction hierarchies is discussed. We conclude that a visualisation model incorporating a hierarchy of interrelated abstraction levels, combined with structural and behavioural perspectives of the software, will provide effective support for software comprehension.

Understanding JavaScript event-based interactions

“…The subjects were required to perform a set of tasks during the experiment, representing tasks normally used in software comprehension and maintenance ef- forts. We adapted the activities proposed by Pacione et al [20], which cover categories of common tasks in program comprehension, to web applications by replacing two items.…”

Understanding Ajax applications by connecting client and server-side execution traces

“…Therefore, we used open-ended questions rather than multiple choice questions. Moreover, we designed tasks using Pacione et al's taxonomy of 9 principal activities (Pacione et al 2004), and strove for coverage of the first 6 principles he suggests: A1. Investigating the functionality of (a part of) the system; A2.…”

“…Because of the limited time frame, tasks are likely to be shorter than realworld tasks, and they might not have covered all program understanding aspects. We tried to mitigate this threat by using Pacione's framework of principal comprehension activities (Pacione et al 2004) to make sure that the tasks are realistic and cover a significant portion of the program comprehension spectrum.…”

A Tool for Visual Understanding of Source Code Dependencies

“…We performed this and other general program comprehension tasks, such as presented by Pacione et al [8] (reduced to static source code analysis), with Creole, Imagix-4D, and Rigi. The main problem with these three tools turned out to be the lack of features to:…”