Visualizing program slices

Abstract

Program slicing is an automatic technique for determining which code in a program is relevant to a particular computation. Slicing has been applied in many areas, including program understanding, debugging, and maintenance. However, little attention has been paid to suitable interfaces for exploring program slices. We present an interface for program slicing that allows slicing at the statement procedure, or file level, and provides fast visual feedback on slice structure, integral to the interface is a global visualization of the program that shows the extent of a slice as it crosses procedure and file boundaries, and facilitates quick browsing of numerous slices.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>