Navigate a city to better understand large variable codes

The complexity of large code bases increases and the functionality developed depends on various elements such as context of use or hardware platforms. So developers have great difficulty in understanding the different functions that are being implemented. One PhD student (PhD student is a committed junior researcher under the direction of a director…) and two teacher-researchers from the lab computer science (Information technology – automatic contraction – is the field …)Sophia Antipolis, signals and systems Awarded (I3S – CNRS / University of Côte d’Azur) Best Artifact Award (ratification of cloning (The possibility of reproducibility of a scientific experiment is one of the conditions that make it possible to include …) and the possibility of reuse of the results) at ICSME / VISSOFT 2021 after its development Point (graphics) VariCity, visualize to represent code as a file village (A city is an urban unit (“human settlement” for…) which highlights areas of the code with an emphasis on its diversity, against (C++ is a programming language that allows programming under multiple paradigms…)Any applications feature differences, making it easier to identify and understand.

The complication (Complexity is a concept used in philosophy and epistemology (for …) The growing number of software systems requires that they be configured very precisely to avoid malicious errors, such as the recent failures of web giants. The strong diversity of operating systems, hardware platforms, and users also means great diversity in the functionality that is provided. The majority of software is now configurable to provide customized services by allowing User to choose its properties (Features in English).

However, it often happens that software is developed incrementally without relating these characteristics to the various elements in the code that implements them. This is the case, for example, of most systems written in object-oriented languages ​​such as Java or C++ that use the same mechanisms for managing their diversity as those used for structuring code (inheritance between classes, design patterns, and method overload). So the parts of the code in which the features are implemented are not explicit, because they are mixed in with these mechanisms. Hence, identifying them manually in large source codes becomes very complicated.

VariCity is based on metrics calculationsImplementation (The word planting can have several meanings:) Changing their perception as a city represents the base of the symbol. This metaphor is already used to understand the quality of code with a classby topic (Generally speaking, the word object (from the Latin objectum, 1361) designates an entity defined in…) such as building and visual elements such as volume and the color (Color is the subjective perception of the eye of one or more wave frequencies…) From its premises to easily reveal areas of lower quality. through conditioningorganisation (the organization is) From the city to represent the street relations between object classes, change Dimensions (In the general sense, the concept of dimension refers to volume; dimensions of a room…) Buildings according to variance scales, areas of interest, with height density (Density or relative density of an object is the ratio of its density to…) From the diversity, they stand out in the form of brightly colored areas, grouping of skyscrapers and parking lots. VariCity is available as a file software (In computing, a program is a set of information related to processing…) open source accompanied by Reproduction package of these validation experimentswhich won an author’s award.

Work continues to integrate this concept into development environments to make it easier Navigation and navigation (Mobility is the science and set of technologies that allow: between code and city elements, with the aim of getting more relevant help in understanding and managed (Master’s degree is a university degree or diploma that corresponds to the degree or job title…) Fabulous icons.

call:
Philip Colette – Professor ofUniversity (The university is an institution of higher education whose goal is…) Cote d’Azur, member of I3S – Philippe.Collet at univ-cotedazur.fr