A Domain-Specific Language for Visualizing Software Dependencies as a Graph

Abstract

Graphs are commonly used to visually represent software dependencies. However, adequately visualizing software dependencies as a graph is a non-trivial problem due to the pluridimentional nature of software. We have designed a domain-specific language for visualizing software dependencies as graphs that is both expressive and concise. GRAPH, the implementation of our DSL, features a seamless mapping between visual dimensions to software metrics, composition of graph layouts, graph partition, and hierarchical bundle edges.