Software Visualization

This course introduces you to the main principles and techniques behind software visualization (softvis). We start from the theory of software lifecycle, including program comprehension. Next, we discuss visualization techniques for understanding software structure (and source code), behavior (execution), and evolution (during maintenance). Finally, we show end-to-end applications of software visualization principles, techniques, and tools to solve real-world problems in the software industry.

Topics

software lifecycle
program comprehension
software structure: source code, containment hierarchies, dependencies, compound graphs
structure visualization: table lenses, node-link layouts, treemaps, edge bundling, diagrams
software metrics
software behavior: profiling, program traces
behavior visualization: timelines, space-filling displays
software evolution: laws of evolution, repository mining
evolution visualization: timelines, space-filling displays, dynamic graphs
software visual analytics
tool design: requirements, guidelines, evaluation, examples

Course details

See the sidebar for links to the course slides, assignment, grading, and additional material.