Visualizing Memory Graphs

  • Authors:
  • Thomas Zimmermann;Andreas Zeller

  • Affiliations:
  • -;-

  • Venue:
  • Revised Lectures on Software Visualization, International Seminar
  • Year:
  • 2001

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

To understand the dynamics of a running program, it is often useful to examine its state at specific moments during its execution. We present memory graphs as a means to capture and explore program states. A memory graph gives a comprehensive view of all data structures of a program; data items are related by operations like dereferencing, indexing or member access. Although memory graphs are typically too large to be visualized as a whole, one can easily focus on specific aspects using well-known graph operations. For instance, a greatest common subgraph visualizes commonalities and differences between program states.