Abstract

Software visualization can play a significant role in program comprehension. A large number of visualization tools have been developed to support program comprehension. Traditionally, these tools are 2D representations. In recent years, 3D software visualization techniques have been introduced to support program comprehension. These techniques provide new approaches to visualizing and comprehending software system structures and their internal relationships. At the same time, they introduce new research challenges. The software metaphors, layout algorithms, and readability criteria generally applicable in 2D software visualization cannot directly be applied in 3D visualizations. In this thesis, we present our research on the use of a new metaphor based on energy fields using the Metaballs 3D modeling and visualization technique. We also present grouping and layout algorithms, specially designed for 3D Metaballs based software visualization. These are built into Metaviz, a software visualization tool, which we have designed and implemented as part of our larger program comprehension environment, CONCEPT. Using Metaviz, we also show examples that illustrate how these visualization techniques, when combined with program slicing and metric based analysis, provide guidance during software comprehension during the testing and maintenance phrase.