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