A Knowledge-Based Toolkit For Software Visualisation




Diana Sidarkeviciute, Enn Tyugu
e-mail: {diana, tyugu}@it.kth.se


Ago Kuusik
e-mail: ago@aetec.estnet.ee




Abstract


Understanding an existing program includes the analysis of the program code, 
as, very often, the program code is the only reliable source of information 
about the program. Many code analysis tools offer the user a possibility to 
examine the program code through a predefined set of graphical views. These 
tools can be considerably improved by using knowledge-based techniques. 
Knowledge-based code analysis tools allow the user to employ his own knowledge 
about programs and their analysis.
The paper discusses a knowledge-based toolkit for graphical presentation, or 
visualisation, of programs: its architecture, the implementation and results 
of work. It is advocated that the introduction of knowledge-based techniques 
increases the extensibility and modifiability of the code analysers. In 
addition, the user of a knowledge-based toolkit is offered an intelligent 
environment for storing knowledge about programs and performing reasoning on 
it.