Method and apparatus for displaying hierarchical information of a large software system
US5581797A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 22, 1993 |
| Grant date | Dec 3, 1996 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 22, 2013 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2201/865
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An interactive method and apparatus for displaying structure, statistics, and characteristics of large software systems, i.e. of more than one million lines of code. This method and apparatus displays important structure and statistics in a manner where the entire software system can be visualized as an entity. The visualization technique is to present similar subdivisions of the code in similar geometric shapes of having a substantially equal reference frames, such as a substantially constant row heights, so relative sizes of the subdivisions can be understood. In addition to the sizes, different shading and coloring modes can be used to display changes, software errors and software fixes. Further, if data of the various releases of a software system are available, the evolution of the system through its releases can be animated to provide a greater understanding of the history of a large software system.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.