Software Feathers - Figurative Visualization of Software Metrics

Fabian Beck

2014

Abstract

In order to give the code entities of a software system a discernible and recognizable face, this paper presents Software Feathers, an approach for mapping characteristics of object-oriented code entities to features of artificially generated feathers. A parameterized drawing algorithm is described that generates pseudo-realistic feathers as 2D graphics. The parameters of the feathers are connected to characteristic software metrics measuring, among others, the size, complexity, and quality of interfaces and classes. Applying the approach demonstrates that categories of code entities can be discerned, problems in the code can be detected, and the evolution of code can be studied. A promising application is embedding the feathers into documentation and IDEs for improving navigation and unobtrusively educating software developers in software metrics.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Beck F. (2014). Software Feathers - Figurative Visualization of Software Metrics . In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications - Volume 1: IVAPP, (VISIGRAPP 2014) ISBN 978-989-758-005-5, pages 5-16. DOI: 10.5220/0004650100050016

in Bibtex Style

@conference{ivapp14,
author={Fabian Beck},
title={Software Feathers - Figurative Visualization of Software Metrics},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications - Volume 1: IVAPP, (VISIGRAPP 2014)},
year={2014},
pages={5-16},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004650100050016},
isbn={978-989-758-005-5},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications - Volume 1: IVAPP, (VISIGRAPP 2014)
TI - Software Feathers - Figurative Visualization of Software Metrics
SN - 978-989-758-005-5
AU - Beck F.
PY - 2014
SP - 5
EP - 16
DO - 10.5220/0004650100050016