Cognitive support through visualization and focus specification for understanding large class libraries

Effective object-oriented (OO) programming requires understanding class libraries. This paper presents our approach to design and build a cognitive tool that supports a programmer to understand OO class libraries. The MUDRIK system provides (1) three-dimensional visualization mechanisms for representing class structures and relationships from a variety of views and (2) flexible focus specification mechanisms that allow users to adapt a space of components to be displayed according to the task at hand. Interactive views of MUDRIK enable programmers to examine components' detail while maintaining a global representation of the rest of the library. The paper describes why understanding class library is critical in OO programming, presents a cognitive framework of our approach and design rationale behind the system design, and provides a detailed description of the system followed by a discussion on our approach. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.