Mapping and visualization of source code a survey

Mapping and Visualization of
Source Code: A Survey
Nakul Sharma
Prasanth Yalla
Computer Science and Engineering Department,
Koneru Laxmiah Education Foundation,
Greenfields, Vijayawada

Abstract
This paper summarizes various states of art
literature in the field of mapping and visualizations
in a programming language. The main focus is the
design and analysis phase of Software Development
Life Cycle. Mapping and visualization in software
artifact is essential component for better
understanding of the software. It also helps
developers and maintenance professionals to
visualize the effect of changes conducted in source
code. In this work, a summary of literature review
in of major tools developed for visualization and
mapping of source code is provided.

Introduction
In this work, the following tools are being examined which are made in respect to
software visualization:-
1. Kieker [1]
2. Octobubbles [2]
3. Umple [3]
4. Reprograms [4]
5. ClonEvol [5]
6. CVSscan [6]
7. Revision Tower [7]
8. 3-DSoftVis [16]
9. History Slicing [8]
10. RelVis [9]
11. Chronia [10]
12. Spectographs [11]
13. Evolution radar [12]
14. CodeCity [13]

Necessity of Source Code Visualization
• The visualizations can help analyst, developer and
maintenance engineer in the following ways:
• Advantages to the developer include:
- Ability to visualize the changes done on source code.
- Ability to check relevant linkage between the design
and source code developed.
- Visual inspection of large software projects helps in
better understanding

Necessity of Source Code Visualization
• Advantages to the Software Maintenance: Software:
• Software maintainers are tasked with introducing
changeability through Software Configuration
Management (SCM). This change is done by studying
the end user's requirements. Hence, software
maintenance work involves the knowledge
• of analysis, design, coding, and testing as well. A visual
inspection of source code can aid in a quick
understanding of how software changes can cause
effects in different phases of the Software
Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

Literature Review
• C/C++/Java Related Visualization Tool
– ClonEval
– Kieker
– 3DSoftVis
• General Visualization Tools
– Chronos
– CVScan
– Revision Towers
– Code City
– Umple
– Reprograms
– Evolution metrics
– Evolution Radar

Reconstruction of source code from
the visualization

Source code and Its corresponding
UML class diagram

Observation From Literature Review
There were the following findings from the literature review
undertaken:
1. In a cloud-based environment, there were no specific
visualization tools developed focusing on larger project source-files.
2. Many object-oriented programming languages such as small talk do
not have any source code visualization tool.
3. In the source code visualization’s developed, the architecture of the
system is not recovered.
4. The solution domain is only addressed in the source code
visualizations which is not merged with the problem domain analysis.
5. The source code visualization’s developed were either
semi-automated completely automated.

Summary Of Tools Developed For
Different Languages For Software
VisualizationReference
No. Source Code
Language
Name of Tool
Developed
Research Tools
used Work Done
Year of
Publication
1 Java,.Net, Cobol Kieker
Java Programming
Language, Web
based GUI
Provides a framework which helps to oversee and
analyze the runtime behavior of system. Kieker is
currently deployed in multiple domains of
Software
Engineering. [18].
2012
2 UML Models Octobubbles Not Mentioned
Provides a multi-dimensional view interactive
environment for parallel visualization and
synchronization of software models 2018
5 C, C++, Java ClonEvol C,C++,Java ClonEval takes information from got from software
versioning
2013
15 Matlab/Octave None
Mentioned
Knowledge
Discovery Meta-
model
The authors generate KDM instances which are
fed as input for further processing and analysis. 2018
3
General purpose
programming
language
for visualization
Umple
Programming
language
Umple is a language which integrates modeling
and implementation. 2016
4
Repository based
projects in any
programming
language
Reprograms
Metric based
visualization
model
Tool for checking the differences and similarity of
software projects. 2016
16 Not mentioned 3DSoftVis
Java, JavaScript,
webserver,VRMLJ
D BC, RMI
Tool for visualizing the software’s release
history as it get changed across timelines 2000

Summary Of Tools Developed For
Different Languages For Software
Visualization
9 Not mentioned RelVis Kiviat Graphs
The tool allows studying the summary
of released history
of the source codes. This aids in visual
inspection across different commits.
2005
6 Not Mentioned CVSscan Not mentioned Line based approach for changes across
different Versions
2005
7 Not Mentioned Revision
Towers
Not Mentioned Creates a visualization across different
versions of software’s 2002
8 Not Mentioned Code City Small Talk,
Eclipse IDE
Code city is Eclipse based plugin which
makes use of small talk
2011
9 Not Mentioned Chronos Online tool Develops a tool named chronos for
showing
implementation
2012
11 Not Mentioned
Evolution
Spectrograph
s
Not mentioned
a visualization mechanism using
property based measurements for the
components of source code
2004
12
Mozilla
repository source
code
Evolution
Radar
Not
mentioned
Allows visual representation of the
given code at both document level as
well as module level logical coupling.
The coupling at various levels are
shown by the tool
2006

Advantages And Disadvantages Of
Software Visualization Tools Developed
Reference
No.
Source Code
Language
Name of Tool
Developed
Advantages of The Tool Disadvantage of The Tool
1, 18 Java,.Net, Cobol Kieker Allows the user to monitor the run-time behavior of
distributed systems.
1, 18
2 UML Models Octobubbles Solves the problem of program comprehension and
facilitates software navigation
2
5 C, C++, Java ClonEvol ClonEvol provides visual representation of software
across
different versions.
The scope-oriented view could
provide better representation
6 Not Mentioned CVSscan Provides a visual tool for inspecting contributions of
developers, statement by statement.
Not Mentioned
7 Not Mentioned
Revision
Towers
Provides an interface for the user to see the current
working
areas of the project, the change frequency and how
work are shared in a project.
The tool did not have any link
with the version-control
systems.
8 Not Mentioned Code City
Code City facilitates reduced task completion time and
correctness of the task performed.
Code city did not perform
better in comparison to Eclipse
and Excel
tools combined together.
9 Not Mentioned Chronos
The developer gets benefited as deelopers had study
reduced information to get to results. The accuracy of
the
developers results also increased for software
maintenance.
None Mentioned
3
General purpose
programming
language
for visualization
Umple
1. The tool is more useful to developers due to its
textual coding ability
Umple is restricted to English
natural language
4
Repository based
projects in any
programming
language
Reprograms
Tool provides user with interface to filter out
software projects and make more rational decisions
for evaluations.
None Mentioned

Advantages And Disadvantages Of
Software Visualization Tools
Developed
16 Not mentioned 3DSoftVis Tool for visual representation of release history of
the project. None mentioned
9 Not mentioned RelVis Tool provides visualization of of graphical
representation of
source code extending up to n releases.
3D Kivit diagrams are not
drawn
and are part of future scope.
11 Not Mentioned Evolution
Spectrographs
The tool highlights the changes across software
releases.
None Mentioned
12
Mozilla repository
source code
Evolution
Radar
Tools facilitates visual representation at document
and module level. The tool also does analysis at
different level of logical coupling between objects at
varying granularity.
Integration with different web
based tools.

ARTIFACTS RELATED TO SOURCE-CODE
OF A PROJECT
Sr.
No.
Type of Document Artifact of SDLC
Phase Usage Usage In SCA
Analysis
1 Dynamic Link
Library (DLL)
Coding Use in proving function
calls
Yes
2 Software Requirement
Specification (SRS) Analysis Useful in providing requirement as official
document between clients
Yes
3 Software Design
Specification
(SDS)
Design Useful in providing Design level specification of the
software being developed
Yes
4 Log Files General Create log of any activity Yes*
5 User Manual Deployment Helps in user’s day-to-day
usage of software being developed
No
6 Meeting Records General For creating proof of points discussed in meeting Yes*
7 Temp files General For storing temporary information Yes*
* depends on the relation with the source code being fed as input

Recommendations On The Literature
Review
• . Authors propose that NLP and AI technologies (NLP
and ML) can aid in better software visualization. Source
Code consists of text in-form of the developer’s
comments in the source-code files in addition to the
programming language statements.
• The programming language statements can be
understood by creating a parallel lookup dictionary or
be learnt to a machine using ML/DL techniques.
• The existing tools in SCA focus on mainly the source
code as an input. The developers of such tool need to
adopt a more holistic approach while developing these
SCA tools.

Conclusion
• This is a literature review regarding existing
software visualization tools developed in SCA.
The literature review is done on software
visualization and its related fields. The
literature contains various tools for providing
visualization to the software developer and
maintenance engineers. There has been more
work focused on software visualization with
more traditional languages such as C, C++,
java.

Citation
• Nakul Sharma, Prasanth Yalla, Mapping and
Visualization of Source Code: A Survey, DOI
10.5013/IJSSST.a.21.04.03, 3.1, ISSN: 1473-
804x online, 1473-8031 print, Vol 21, No-3.
(https://ijssst.info/Vol-21/No-4/paper3.pdf)

Mapping and visualization of source code a survey

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