GVU Technical Report Number:
GIT-GVU-94-33
Title:
Using Visualization to Foster Object-Oriented Program Understanding
Authors:
Dean F. Jerding
John T. Stasko
Abstract:
Software development and maintenance tasks rely on and can benefit from
an increased level of program understanding. Object-oriented programming
languages provide features which facilitate software maintenance, yet the
same features often make object-oriented programs more diffcult to
understand. We support the use of program visualization techniques to
foster object-oriented program comprehension. This paper identifies ways
that visualization can increase program understanding, and presents a
means for characterizing both static and dynamic aspects of an
object-oriented program. We then describe the implementation of a
prototypical tool for visualizing the execution of C++ programs. Based
on this work, we define a framework for the visualization of
object-oriented software which requires little or no programmer
intervention and provides a mechanism which allows users to focus
quickly on particular aspects of the program.
Keywords:
Program visualization, program comprehension, object-oriented programs
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