Evolutionary layout: preserving the mental map during the development of class models

It is vital for any developer to keep track of changes during his project. Thus, it is common practice to take static snapshots of single class diagrams. But to preserve the mental map, the layout of a class diagrams sequence is necessary. Therefore, we present in this paper requirements to layout a sequence of class diagrams and an approach for a layout algorithm to fulfill them. Our main idea was to see a sequence of class diagrams as the evolution of one graph over time. We expressed the graph‘s evolution via a graph transformations sequence and enriched this with the concept of node aging. We extended also the well-known spring-embedder layout algorithm to layout single graphs from this new sequence with the concept of layout pattern to integrate apriori-knowledge. The resulting algorithm has been integrated into the AGG-Tool, an environment for Attributed Graph Grammars, and produced good results on various class diagrams and general graph grammars.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: SOFTVIS
• Authors: Susanne Jucknath-John, Dennis Graf, Gabriele Taentzer
• Keywords: Class Diagrams, Class Diagrams Sequence, Layout Algorithm, SOFTVIS 2006, Visualization