Research Seminar - May 23, 2003

Visualization of Programs Using Proximity to Trigger Continuous Semantic Zooming

Abstract:

Understanding programs is always difficult. The larger and more complex, the more difficult to penetrate the structure, functionality, and intent of a program. Scientific programs suffer as much as any from this phenomenon, with the additional complication that they are often written and being read by non-programmers: scientists who's primary concentration is on the science, not the program.

This talk discusses a new method for visualizing hierarchical structures such as programs called Continuous Semantic Zooming (CSZ) and a set of human subjects experiments conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the CSZ method when compared to the more traditional program viewing method of semantic zooming.