Software Comprehension – Integrating Program Analysis and Software Visualization

We advocate that successful software comprehension methods (and tools) need the synergy of low-level code analyses known from the field of compiler construction, high-level analyses from the field of re-engineering and software visualization techniques. We argue that each individual technique would be either not goal directed or too shallow (or both). After a thorough state-of-the-art analysis and a problem discussion, we propose an approach to integration. The intention of this paper is rather discussing the further direction of research in software comprehension than presenting novel technical solutions.