The document proposes a new glyph-based approach called the Recursive Disk Metaphor for visualizing software systems. It represents different software elements like packages, classes, methods, and attributes as circular glyphs and arranges them recursively based on their containment relationships. This approach aims to provide a holistic structural view of the software that makes patterns and anti-patterns visually detectable to help with understanding, exploration, and quality assessment. The technique is implemented using a model-driven approach and case studies on visualizing the Findbugs project demonstrate its effectiveness. Future work is planned to evaluate the recursive disk metaphor and expand it to support additional programming languages.

1. IVAPP 2015: Position Paper
The Recursive Disk Metaphor – A Glyph-based
Approach for Software Visualization
R. Müller
Information Systems Institute, Leipzig University
D. Zeckzer
Institute of Computer Science, Leipzig University
11th March 2015

2. 2
Motivation
 Software is complex, intangible, and invisible
 Major challenge
 Give software a shape for
 understanding
 exploration
 quality assessment (comparison, flaws)
 Solution
 Combination of a glyph-based approach and software visualization
© 2015 by R. Müller & D. Zeckzer
[Gračanin, Matković, & Eltoweissy 2005]

3. 3
Related Work
© 2015 by R. Müller & D. Zeckzer
Visualization
Technique/Tool
Package
Class
Inner
Class
Method
Attribute
Relations
Treemap + + -- -- -- --
Circular Treemap + + -- -- -- --
Sunburst + + -- -- -- --
Dependency Structure Matrix + -- -- -- -- +
Hierarchical Edge Bundles + + -- -- -- +
Treemap metrics + + -- + -- --
CodeCrawler -- + -- + + +
Voronoi Treemap + + + + + --
UML + + -- + + +
UML MetricView + + -- + + +
UML Area of Interest + + -- + + +
Rigi + + -- + + +
Recursive Disk + + + + + +

4. 4
The Recursive Disk Metaphor
 Two-dimensional metaphor
 Represents the structure of a software system
 Packages, classes including inner classes, methods, attributes, and
relations
 Glyph-based approach
 Structural entities are mapped to circular glyphs
 The glyphs are placed recursively according to their containment
relation
 Benefits
 Visual patterns for
 understanding
 exploration
 quality assessment (comparison, flaws)
© 2015 by R. Müller & D. Zeckzer

5. 5
Glyph Design and Placement Strategy
© 2015 by R. Müller & D. Zeckzer
Package Class
Method Attribute
Subclass
Superclass

6. 6
Implementation: Generative and Model-
driven Software Visualization
© 2015 by R. Müller & D. Zeckzer
[Müller et al. 2011]
Extraction Analysis Filtering Mapping Rendering
Famix Eclipse Modeling Framework
X3D
X3DOM
HTML 5
Javascript

7. 7
Display and Interaction
© 2015 by R. Müller & D. Zeckzer
Overview/Zoom
(Navigation Mode: Turntable)
Details-on-demand
Relate
Filter
(Hide/Unhide, Search)

8. 8
Case Study: Findbugs (Overview)
© 2015 by R. Müller & D. Zeckzer

9. 9
Case Study: Findbugs (Zoom)
© 2015 by R. Müller & D. Zeckzer

10. 10
Conclusion
 Glyph-based approach for software visualization
 Holistic structural view including packages, classes, inner classes,
methods, and attributes as well as relations
 Scalable and comparable shape with an inner structural
consistency and a completely defined orientation
 Patterns and anti-patterns become visually detectable
© 2015 by R. Müller & D. Zeckzer

11. 11
Future Work
 Cover additional languages, such as C/C++ and .NET
 Compare this approach with established approaches for visually
detecting anti-patterns
 A series of experiments is planned to evaluate the recursive disk
metaphor empirically
© 2015 by R. Müller & D. Zeckzer

12. 12
Your Questions
© 2015 by R. Müller & D. Zeckzer
 R. Müller: rmueller@wifa.uni-leipzig.de
 D. Zeckzer: zeckzer@informatik.uni-leipzig.de
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13. 13
References
 Gračanin, D., Matković, K. & Eltoweissy, M., 2005. Software Visualization. Innovations in Systems and
Software Engineering, 1(2), pp.221–230.
 Müller, R. et al., 2011. Generative Software Visualization: Automatic Generation of User-Specific
Visualizations. In Proceedings of the International Workshop on Digital Engineering. Magdeburg,
Germany, pp. 45–49.
© 2015 by R. Müller & D. Zeckzer