One way that knowledge can be presented is trough (interactive) visualization. We have a visualization tool that takes as input the JSON-formatted LPG. It is developed using the Cytoscape javascript library. It is live and can be interacted with here. This particular showcase presents the structure of a Java project JHotDraw and also includes the following analysis results:
- Role stereotypes (as described here) in the form of node colors.
- Trace information from dynamic analysis (also as described here) in the “Features” tab.
- Automatically generated summaries (as described here) as shown in the “infobox” on the lower right corner of the screen when you hover over nodes.
We are actively developing visualization tools to help software developers understand the structure of a complex software system. We are focusing on having two levels of abstractions: a high level that should display something like 15 to 20 abstract “components” that we can use to zoom-in (and zoom back out) to a more detailed level.