Microprints: A Pixel-based Semantically Rich Visualization of Methods

Abstract

Understanding classes and methods is a key activity in object-oriented programming, since classes represent the primary abstractions from which applications are built, while methods contain the actual program logic. The main problem of this task is to quickly grasp the purpose and inner structure of a class. To achieve this goal, one must be able to overview multiple methods at once. In this paper, we present microprints, pixel-based representations of methods enriched with semantical information. We present three specialized microprints each dealing with a specific aspect we want to understand of methods: (1) state access, (2) control flow, and (3) invocation relationship. We present the microprints in conjunction with the class blueprints of the CODE CRAWLER visualization tool 12 and also integrated into the default code browser of the Smalltalk VisualWorks development environment.