Microprints: A Pixel-based Semantically Rich Visualization of Methods

Robbes, Romain; Ducasse, Stéphane; Lanza, Michele (2005). Microprints: A Pixel-based Semantically Rich Visualization of Methods. In: 13th International Smalltalk Conference. Brüssel, Belgien. 16.-20. Aug. 2005.

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Understanding classes and methods is a key activity in object-oriented programming, since classes represent the primary abstractions from which applications are built, while methods contain the actual program logic. The main problem of this task is to quickly grasp the purpose and inner structure of a class. To achieve this goal, one must be able to overview multiple methods at once. In this paper, we present microprints, pixel-based representations of methods enriched with semantical information. We present three specialized microprints each dealing with a specific aspect we want to understand of methods: (1) state access, (2) control flow, and (3) invocation relationship. We present the microprints in conjunction with the class blueprints of the CODE CRAWLER visualization tool 12 and also integrated into the default code browser of the Smalltalk VisualWorks development environment.

Item Type:

Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Computer Science (INF)
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Computer Science (INF) > Software Composition Group (SCG) [discontinued]

UniBE Contributor:

Ducasse, Stephane

Subjects:

000 Computer science, knowledge & systems
500 Science > 510 Mathematics

Language:

English

Submitter:

Anja Ebeling

Date Deposited:

06 Nov 2017 10:51

Last Modified:

11 Apr 2024 16:11

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.104735

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/104735

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