Abstract

The advantages of object-oriented (OO) and other modern software engineering techniques are offset by the continuing increase in the size and complexity of software systems. With rapid advances in processing power and computer graphics techniques, three-dimensional visualization is gaining increasing attention in this domain. 3D graphics provides the extra 3 rd dimension and increases the virtual space available for visual depiction of software entities and relationships. Our research explores a new category of Software Visualization tools that enable users to visualize program analysis results in a three-dimensional virtual environment. We combine program analysis and software visualization techniques using a cityscape metaphor to present views of structures in software thus enhancing program understanding during software maintenance. We have developed and implemented the Java3D Virtual City (JVC) extensible framework to facilitate such exploration. Use of JVC in experiments on visualization of automatically discovered design patterns illustrates that the proposed methodology does indeed provide additional insights into complex relationships among data without having to analyze the underlying source code in detail. The framework includes substantial built-in functionality to automatically generate scene graph for easing understanding, and can be extended with other understanding-promoting techniques. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)