SMNLV: A small-multiples node-link visualization supporting software comprehension by displaying multiple relationships in software structure

Software engineering tasks like understanding of (legacy) software, checking guidelines, finding structure, or re-engineering of existing software require the analysis of the static software structure. The optimal visualization of this structure depends on the task at hand. In general, the software structure is mapped to a graph and graph drawing algorithms are used for displaying the structure. The task of drawing these graphs becomes more involved if not only one type of relations, e.g., call graphs, but many relation types should be analyzed at the same time. We propose a small-multiples node-link visualization, where each small visualization shows the graph related to one edge type. The visualizations are synchronized using selection and coordinated views. Using a separate view for each of the relations provides additional analysis capabilities. The main advantage of this approach is, that optimized drawing algorithms can be used for each type of relationship while being able to display multiple relationships at the same time.