A Programmer-Centric and Task-Optimized Object Graph Visualizer for Debuggers

Today, existing graph visualizers are not popular for debugging purposes because they are mostly visualization-oriented, rather than task-oriented, implementing general-purpose graph drawing algorithms. The latter explains why prominent integrated development environments still adopt traditional tree views. The authors introduce a debugging assistant with a visualization technique designed to better fit the actual task of defect detection in runtime object networks, while supporting advanced inspection and configuration features. Its design has been centered on the study of the actual programmer needs in the context of the debugging task, emphasizing: 1.) visualization style inspired by a social networking metaphor enabling easily identify who deploys objects (clients) and whom objects deploy (servers); 2.) inspection features to easily review object contents and associations and to search content patterns (currently regular expressions only); and 3.) interactively configurable levels of information detail, supporting off-line inspection and multiple concurrent views.