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;
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
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11386/4779773
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 13
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact