Abstract: Understanding object-oriented software systems requires developers to mentally reconstruct the roles and relationships of classes from scattered lines of code, a slow, cognitively demanding process that scales poorly with codebase size. In this SI seminar, I present Class Contours, a novel 2D visualization metaphor that portrays individual classes as stylized architectural structures. Key class properties such as number of lines of code, attributes, and methods are encoded into building visual properties like its size, doors, and windows, enabling pattern recognition and design issue detection at a glance. I will show how Class Contours reveal common class archetypes, such as data, utility, God classes, and more, along with code smells and design inconsistencies, all without reading a single line of source code.

Chair: Joey Bevilacqua