A framework for language-independent generation of graphical representations of algorithms
T. Dean Hendrix, James H. Cross · 1996
There are many potential benefits to be gained from the effective use of graphical representations of source code. To be of practical use, however, such graphical representations must be automatically generated and supported in software. There are existing tools that provide this functionality, but many are source language specific and cannot be easily adapted to other languages. This research creates a language independent framework for static software visualization systems. A markup language is created to define a boundary between source language processing and graphical rendering. It is demonstrated that the rendering of certain visualizations of software can be based on this markup language rather than the underlying source code, thus making any visualization tool based on this model language independent. The language independent model is demonstrated to be effective and efficient even for production strength software through implementation of the GRASP tool.