Towards visualization of evolution of component-based software architectures in VR.

Abstract

To understand the development history of complex software architectures, software visualizations are very useful. They show dependencies and contexts in which design decisions were made, supporting programmers in understanding systems and helping them to recognize disadvantageous design decisions. IslandViz visualizes OSGi-based software architectures in Virtual Reality using an island metaphor; for now, the history of an architecture is not taken into account. We show how IslandViz can be extended to include changes on package and compilation unit level by changing the layout of islands. For this purpose we adapt the Enhanced Hexagon Tiling Algorithm and create growth corridors for each region of an island. As a result, island regions can change along with their respective packages without the possibility of being enclosed by other regions.