FCTree: Visualization of function calls in execution

IF 3.8 2区计算机科学 Q2 COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Information and Software Technology Pub Date : 2024-08-02 DOI:10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107545

Fangfang Zhou , Yilun Fan , Shenglan Lv , Lijia Jiang , Zhuo Chen , Jian Yuan , Feijiang Han , Haojin Jiang , Genghuai Bai , Ying Zhao

{"title":"FCTree: Visualization of function calls in execution","authors":"Fangfang Zhou , Yilun Fan , Shenglan Lv , Lijia Jiang , Zhuo Chen , Jian Yuan , Feijiang Han , Haojin Jiang , Genghuai Bai , Ying Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107545","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Function calls in execution contain rich bivariate, hierarchical, and chronological information. Many visualizations have been adopted to analyze function calls in execution for program testing, vulnerability locating, and malware detection. However, we conducted a pilot study and revealed that existing single-viewed function call visualizations fail to present the bivariate, hierarchical, and chronological information comprehensively. A new function call visualization named FCTree is proposed in this work to deal with this situation. Learned from advantages of existing visualizations and iterative discussions with actual users, FCTree uses a compact and aligned hierarchical layout design to present the bivariate and hierarchical information and adopts a glyph design to present the chronological information. Subjective and objective experiments in the laboratory and a field study in a real-world scenario were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of FCTree.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54983,"journal":{"name":"Information and Software Technology","volume":"175 ","pages":"Article 107545"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Information and Software Technology","FirstCategoryId":"94","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950584924001502","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Function calls in execution contain rich bivariate, hierarchical, and chronological information. Many visualizations have been adopted to analyze function calls in execution for program testing, vulnerability locating, and malware detection. However, we conducted a pilot study and revealed that existing single-viewed function call visualizations fail to present the bivariate, hierarchical, and chronological information comprehensively. A new function call visualization named FCTree is proposed in this work to deal with this situation. Learned from advantages of existing visualizations and iterative discussions with actual users, FCTree uses a compact and aligned hierarchical layout design to present the bivariate and hierarchical information and adopts a glyph design to present the chronological information. Subjective and objective experiments in the laboratory and a field study in a real-world scenario were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of FCTree.

查看原文本刊更多论文

FCTree：执行中的函数调用可视化

执行中的函数调用包含丰富的双变量、层次和时间信息。许多可视化方法被用于分析执行中的函数调用，以进行程序测试、漏洞定位和恶意软件检测。然而，我们进行了一项试验性研究，发现现有的单视角函数调用可视化无法全面呈现双变量、层次和时间信息。针对这种情况，我们提出了一种名为 FCTree 的新函数调用可视化方法。借鉴现有可视化的优点，并与实际用户反复讨论，FCTree 采用紧凑、对齐的分层布局设计来呈现双变量和分层信息，并采用字形设计来呈现时间信息。为了评估 FCTree 的有效性，我们在实验室进行了主观和客观实验，并在现实世界中进行了实地研究。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Information and Software Technology 工程技术-计算机：软件工程

CiteScore

9.10

自引率

7.70%

发文量

164

审稿时长

9.6 weeks

期刊介绍： Information and Software Technology is the international archival journal focusing on research and experience that contributes to the improvement of software development practices. The journal''s scope includes methods and techniques to better engineer software and manage its development. Articles submitted for review should have a clear component of software engineering or address ways to improve the engineering and management of software development. Areas covered by the journal include: • Software management, quality and metrics, • Software processes, • Software architecture, modelling, specification, design and programming • Functional and non-functional software requirements • Software testing and verification & validation • Empirical studies of all aspects of engineering and managing software development Short Communications is a new section dedicated to short papers addressing new ideas, controversial opinions, "Negative" results and much more. Read the Guide for authors for more information. The journal encourages and welcomes submissions of systematic literature studies (reviews and maps) within the scope of the journal. Information and Software Technology is the premiere outlet for systematic literature studies in software engineering.