Using Snapshot Streams to Support Visual Exploration
Delbert Hart · 1997
The non-determinism, complexity, and size of distributed software systems present significant difficulties for designers and maintainers. Visualization can help alleviate these difficulties through interactive exploratory tools that allow online investigation of a distributed computation at a variety of abstraction levels. Essential to the success of a visual exploration tool is the ability to provide accurate representations of global states. This paper is concerned with the use of snapshots in support of interactive visual exploration of distributed computations. The nature of the visualization process requires snapshots that (1) vary in content and scope in response to changes in the viewer's interests, (2) can be generated on demand with minimal impact on long-lived computations which may be monitored only occasionally, and (3) are consecutive, thus facilitating smooth animation of state changes. This paper describes a monitoring approach that satisfies these requirements and sever...