Integrating Architectural Analysis into 3D Source Code Visualization: Design and Evaluation

Sammanfattning

This thesis presents a new approach to visualizing code cities, which are graphical representations of the structure and dependencies of a software system. A code city is basically a bar chart with an extra dimension, resulting in three dimensions and therefore three properties, some of which can be size or complexity. By integrating architectural information, such as prohibited dependencies, the proposed tool provides a more complete and nuanced view of the system's architecture. Appropriate ways of augmenting code cities with architecture information as contained in reflexion models will be explored and designed. For example, the thesis will develop an integrated approach that visualizes architecture modules, dependencies, and architectural violations and informs developers and software architects about potential architectural problems. The usefulness of the proposed tool will be evaluated through a small user study. The results of this study will provide insight into the effectiveness of the tool for gaining a deeper understanding of a software system's architecture. This approach has the potential to improve the design and maintenance of complex software systems.