article

The Control Structure Diagram: An Overview and InitialEvaluation

Authors:

James H. Cross, II,

T. Dean Hendrix,

Saeed MaghsoodlooAuthors Info & Claims

Empirical Software Engineering, Volume 3, Issue 2

Pages 131 - 158

https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008085415145

Published: 01 August 1998 Publication History

Abstract

A new graphical representation, the Control Structure Diagram (CSD), has been created to visualize software at both the source code and program design language (PDL) level. The primary impetus for creation of the CSD was to improve the comprehension efficiency of software and, as a result, improve reliability and reduce costs. The CSD has the potential to replace traditional prettyprinted source code. As part of the GRASP (Graphical Representations of Algorithms, Structures, and Processes) research project at Auburn University, the GRASP software engineering tool has been successfully developed. GRASP automatically generates CSDs from source code written in Ada, C, C++, Java, and VHDL. The emphasis to this point has been on the automatic generation of the CSD to support development, maintenance, reverse engineering and reengineering through the use of GRASP. GRASP has been applied successfully to numerous programs ranging in size from several hundred to several thousand lines of source code and is efficient and sufficiently flexible for use in a production setting. To demonstrate the potential benefits of the CSD and its automatic generation using GRASP, a series of empirical studies has been planned and initiated. First, as reported in this article, the perceived usefulness of the CSD was evaluated using a preference instrument based on eleven performance characteristics in which a comparison was made with other well-known graphical representations for algorithms. Statistical analysis indicated numerous significant differences with a clear preference for the CSD in seven of the eleven performance characteristics. Further empirical studies, currently being implemented, will examine the effect of the CSD and GRASP on objective measures such as comprehension efficiency and effectiveness.

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Cited By

Bacher INamee BKelleher JKozlíková BSchreck TWischgoll T(2017)ScopedProceedings of the Eurographics/IEEE VGTC Conference on Visualization: Short Papers10.2312/eurovisshort.20171143(115-119)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.2312/eurovisshort.20171143
Dalton AKreahling WCunningham HRuth PKraft N(2010)Automated construction of memory diagrams for program comprehensionProceedings of the 48th annual ACM Southeast Conference10.1145/1900008.1900040(1-6)Online publication date: 15-Apr-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1900008.1900040
Umphress DHendrix TCross JMaghsoodloo S(2006)Software visualizations for improving and measuring the comprehensibility of source codeScience of Computer Programming10.5555/1143371.114337360:2(121-133)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1143371.1143373
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The Control Structure Diagram: An Overview and InitialEvaluation
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages

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Published In

cover image Empirical Software Engineering

Empirical Software Engineering Volume 3, Issue 2

1998

86 pages

ISSN:1382-3256

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © Copyright © 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Publisher

Kluwer Academic Publishers

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 August 1998

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Bacher INamee BKelleher JKozlíková BSchreck TWischgoll T(2017)ScopedProceedings of the Eurographics/IEEE VGTC Conference on Visualization: Short Papers10.2312/eurovisshort.20171143(115-119)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.2312/eurovisshort.20171143
Dalton AKreahling WCunningham HRuth PKraft N(2010)Automated construction of memory diagrams for program comprehensionProceedings of the 48th annual ACM Southeast Conference10.1145/1900008.1900040(1-6)Online publication date: 15-Apr-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1900008.1900040
Umphress DHendrix TCross JMaghsoodloo S(2006)Software visualizations for improving and measuring the comprehensibility of source codeScience of Computer Programming10.5555/1143371.114337360:2(121-133)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1143371.1143373
Roy G(2006)Designing and explaining programs with a literate pseudocodeJournal on Educational Resources in Computing10.1145/1217862.12178636:1(1-es)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1217862.1217863
Ducasse SLanza M(2005)The Class BlueprintIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2005.1431:1(75-90)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2005
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Umphress DCross JJain JMeda NBarowski L(2004)Bringing J2ME industry practice into the classroomACM SIGCSE Bulletin10.1145/1028174.97140736:1(301-305)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2004
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1028174.971407
Kasmarik KThurbon J(2003)Experimental evaluation of a program visualisation tool for use in computer science educationProceedings of the Asia-Pacific symposium on Information visualisation - Volume 2410.5555/857080.857094(111-116)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2003
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Hendrix DCross JMaghsoodloo S(2002)The Effectiveness of Control Structure Diagrams in Source Code Comprehension ActivitiesIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2002.100045028:5(463-477)Online publication date: 1-May-2002
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2002.1000450
Buck DStucki D(2001)JKarelRobotACM SIGCSE Bulletin10.1145/366413.36452933:1(16-20)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2001
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