We present an approach based on a forest metaphor to ease the comprehension of evolving object oriented software systems. The approach takes advantages of familiar concepts such as forests of trees, sub-forest of trees, trunks, branches, leaves, and color of the leaves. In particular, each release of a software is represented as a forest that users (or software maintainers) can navigate and interact with. Users can pass from a release to another one, so understanding how the entire software and its classes evolve throughout the past releases. The approach has been implemented in a prototype of a 3D interactive environment. A preliminary empirical evaluation has been also conducted to assess that environment and the underlying approach.

Visualizing the evolution of software systems using the forest metaphor

ERRA, UGO;SCANNIELLO, GIUSEPPE;CAPECE, NICOLA FELICE
2012-01-01

Abstract

We present an approach based on a forest metaphor to ease the comprehension of evolving object oriented software systems. The approach takes advantages of familiar concepts such as forests of trees, sub-forest of trees, trunks, branches, leaves, and color of the leaves. In particular, each release of a software is represented as a forest that users (or software maintainers) can navigate and interact with. Users can pass from a release to another one, so understanding how the entire software and its classes evolve throughout the past releases. The approach has been implemented in a prototype of a 3D interactive environment. A preliminary empirical evaluation has been also conducted to assess that environment and the underlying approach.
2012
978-076954771-8
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11563/111115
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