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Seesoft-A Tool for Visualizing Line Oriented Software Statistics

Authors:

Stephen G. Eick,

Joseph L. Steffen,

Eric E. Sumner, Jr.Authors Info & Claims

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Volume 18, Issue 11

Pages 957 - 968

https://doi.org/10.1109/32.177365

Published: 01 November 1992 Publication History

Abstract

The Seesoft software visualization system allows one to analyze up to 50000 lines of code simultaneously by mapping each line of code into a thin row. The color of each row indicates a statistic of interest, e.g., red rows are those most recently changed, and blue are those least recently changed. Seesoft displays data derived from a variety of sources, such as version control systems that track the age, programmer, and purpose of the code (e.g., control ISDN lamps, fix bug in call forwarding); static analyses, (e.g., locations where functions are called); and dynamic analyses (e.g., profiling). By means of direct manipulation and high interaction graphics, the user can manipulate this reduced representation of the code in order to find interesting patterns. Further insight is obtained by using additional windows to display the actual code. Potential applications for Seesoft include discovery, project management, code tuning, and analysis of development methodologies.

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Cited By

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Horvath AMacvean AMyers B(2024)Meta-Manager: A Tool for Collecting and Exploring Meta Information about CodeProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642676(1-17)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
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Index Terms

Seesoft-A Tool for Visualizing Line Oriented Software Statistics

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Reviews

Reviewer: Horst Remus

The authors describe a tool for visualizing attributes of code, such as age or the number of changes made to the lines within the code. The tool allows the simultaneous analysis of up to 50,000 lines and can zoom in on especially interesting areas. It could be used for any ordered database displaying a number of the attributes of written text. The basic techniques are reduced representation, coloring by value of the attribute considered, and direct manipulation for finding interesting patterns and accessing specific lines of code. Though it is not essential for measuring code , this tool appears to be extremely useful for a fast and effective inspection. Software development shops concerned with programming in the large should consider using it.

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering Volume 18, Issue 11

Special issue on software measurement principles, techniques, and environments

November 1992

107 pages

ISSN:0098-5589

Editor:
Nancy G. Leveson
Univ. California, Irvine

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Copyright © Copyright © 1992 IEEE. All Rights Reserved.

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IEEE Press

Publication History

Published: 01 November 1992

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Li WBrooks CJoyner DKim MWang XXia M(2024)Influence on Judgements of Learning Given Perceived AI AnnotationsProceedings of the Eleventh ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale10.1145/3657604.3662044(221-231)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3657604.3662044
Horvath AMacvean AMyers B(2024)Meta-Manager: A Tool for Collecting and Exploring Meta Information about CodeProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642676(1-17)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642676
Fregnan EFröhlich JSpadini DBacchelli A(2023)Graph-based visualization of merge requests for code reviewJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2022.111506195:COnline publication date: 1-Jan-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.jss.2022.111506
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