Comments: I uploaded dissertation.ps to my home folder on pollux.
ContactPerson: pvg@cse.buffalo.edu
Remote host: 67-20-232-25.kntnny.adelphia.net
### Begin Citation ### Do not delete this line ###
%R 2005-15
%U /home/csegrad/pvg/dissertation.ps
%A Gestwicki, Paul V.
%T Interactive Visualization of Object-Oriented Languages
%D June 15, 2005
%I Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SUNY Buffalo
%K object-oriented programming; program visualization; interactive execution; java
%X We present a novel approach for the interactive visualization of the execution of object-oriented
programs that fulfills several important criteria: (i) visual depiction of the current execution state
as well as the entire history of execution; (ii) support for forward as well as reverse execution stepping;
(iii) enhanced graph-drawing techniques for the current state and history of execution; (iv) support for
run-time queries on the execution state; (v) support for all major features of the Java language and use
of the standard Java compiler and run-time system. Taken together, our approach marks a significant
advance over existing techniques for visualizing object-oriented program execution.
Our proposed notation for expressing Java execution states clarifies the important fact that objects
are environments; that is, a method execution is shown within its object context. By incorporating
diagrams similar to those used during the design phase, we help to close the loop between design and
execution. In particular, an enhanced UML-like object diagram is used for depicting the current state,
and sequence diagrams are used for execution history. Interactive execution is instrumented by
conceptualizing program execution as a database, so that stepping backward or forward through recorded
states involves rolling back or re-committing transactions. Our methodology incorporates a novel technique
for recording minimal state transitions in order to efficiently provide this interactive execution.
Automatically generating object and sequence diagrams requires advanced graph drawing techniques.
The enhanced object diagrams we present are not simple graphs, and special techniques are required to
process them. We illustrate how layered drawing techniques can be used to achieve good drawings of enhanced
object diagrams. Two techniques are presented for automatically drawing sequence diagrams: a stochastic
simulated annealing approach and a fast greedy technique. We show how traditional graph-theoretic approaches
can be combined with program-specific properties in order to produce better automatic drawings.
Specifically, an analysis of the class diagram is used to determine the classes that form logical clusters,
and these clusters are formed in the object diagram generated at runtime. We have implemented our approach
in a prototypical tool called JIVE: Java Interactive Visualization Environment.