%0 Journal Article %1 Price1993 %A Price, B. %A Baecker, R. %A Small, I. %D 1993 %J Journal of Visual Languages and Computing %K software visualization %N 3 %P 211--266 %T A Principled Taxonomy of Sofware Visualization %U http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~nernst/papers/baecker-taxo-vis-p9.pdf %V 4 %X A well founded taxonomy can further serious investigation in any field of study. A common language or terminology facilitates communication about ideas or discoveries. Taxonomies provide this common language and allow new discoveries to be identified and catalogued. They also show where an apparently new discovery is a refinement or variation of something else. In the natural sciences, taxonomies (such as the periodic table of elements) have also served to predict where new discoveries will be made. An important feature of a taxonomy is that it allow for expansion; if a new branch of a field is discovered or invented it must fit smoothly into the taxonomy without requiring a re-ordering of all of the other items. If a particular area later warrants closer study then a finer subdivision must be allowed. Thus, a taxonomy must have a principled derivation, for an ad hoc approach invites chaos and frequent problems in categorizing new items. In this paper, we present a new taxonomy for systems involved in the visualization of computer software. We seek to provide a detailed "road map" of the work accomplished so far by identifying six broad categories of characteristics derived from an accepted model of software and by filling in the observed characteristics in each category. We describe twelve systems in detail and then apply the taxonomy to them in order to illustrate its application and to show how the systems span the taxonomy. Many of the characteristics require a subjective evaluation to rank systems relative to one another. Each ranking is based on our understanding of the systems and in some cases on our personal opinion of their relative performance; this is the weakest point in our taxonomy and more rigorous methods are required for evaluation. In the discussion we look at the performance of each system in each category and comment on its contribution to the field. We also discuss how the fields of cognitive science and software psychology have been underutilized by researchers building systems and suggest a number of ways in which this work can make a contribution. We conclude with a research agenda for the 90 s.

@article{Price1993, abstract = {A well founded taxonomy can further serious investigation in any field of study. A common language or terminology facilitates communication about ideas or discoveries. Taxonomies provide this common language and allow new discoveries to be identified and catalogued. They also show where an apparently new discovery is a refinement or variation of something else. In the natural sciences, taxonomies (such as the periodic table of elements) have also served to predict where new discoveries will be made. An important feature of a taxonomy is that it allow for expansion; if a new branch of a field is discovered or invented it must fit smoothly into the taxonomy without requiring a re-ordering of all of the other items. If a particular area later warrants closer study then a finer subdivision must be allowed. Thus, a taxonomy must have a principled derivation, for an ad hoc approach invites chaos and frequent problems in categorizing new items. In this paper, we present a new taxonomy for systems involved in the visualization of computer software. We seek to provide a detailed "road map" of the work accomplished so far by identifying six broad categories of characteristics derived from an accepted model of software and by filling in the observed characteristics in each category. We describe twelve systems in detail and then apply the taxonomy to them in order to illustrate its application and to show how the systems span the taxonomy. Many of the characteristics require a subjective evaluation to rank systems relative to one another. Each ranking is based on our understanding of the systems and in some cases on our personal opinion of their relative performance; this is the weakest point in our taxonomy and more rigorous methods are required for evaluation. In the discussion we look at the performance of each system in each category and comment on its contribution to the field. We also discuss how the fields of cognitive science and software psychology have been underutilized by researchers building systems and suggest a number of ways in which this work can make a contribution. We conclude with a research agenda for the 90 s.}, added-at = {2006-03-24T16:34:33.000+0100}, author = {Price, B. and Baecker, R. and Small, I.}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/25af9e0dee1a578c33084a0f2c94b473a/neilernst}, citeulike-article-id = {121596}, description = {sdasda}, interhash = {8aced2e809198960f9ff7ffaf8d660c5}, intrahash = {5af9e0dee1a578c33084a0f2c94b473a}, journal = {Journal of Visual Languages and Computing}, keywords = {software visualization}, number = 3, pages = {211--266}, priority = {2}, timestamp = {2006-03-24T16:34:33.000+0100}, title = {A Principled Taxonomy of Sofware Visualization}, url = {http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~nernst/papers/baecker-taxo-vis-p9.pdf}, volume = 4, year = 1993 }