Visualizing Class Information

TL;DR

This paper introduces a visualization technique using cone charts to help developers quickly understand class metrics like methods, attributes, and LOC in large object-oriented projects, aiming to improve comprehension and reduce effort.

Contribution

The paper proposes a novel cone chart visualization method for class metrics, enhancing the clarity and speed of understanding large classes in object-oriented programming.

Findings

Cone charts effectively display class metrics.

Visualization reduces time to comprehend large classes.

Colors aid in distinguishing different metrics.

Abstract

A class is used in object oriented programming to describe each object in the system. It is as a template contains the methods and attributes for each object. The volume of information within the class has a role in the time required for its implementation, testing and understanding the class. Developers are dealing with large projects that contain a large number of Lines Of Code (LOC). So that, extracting information about the classes requires time and big effort from the developers. To solve this problem, we present a visualization approach to display class information for developers. Our method assumed each class is a cone chart and each cone represents one of the class metrics that include number of methods, attributes and the number of Lines Of Code (LOC). The height of each cone indicates the total number of methods, attributes and number of Lines Of Code (LOC) which found in a class. Also, each cone has a different color from the other to facilitate the distinction among them