The interesting NooFace web site reports: “This page describes the kernel3d program, which produces a 3D animation of Linux source code development. Shapes and different colored lines are used to represent files, function dependencies, variable dependencies, file size modifications, files being moved across directories, and new files”.
Visualizing Source Code in 3D
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I love when someone comes up with some neat new use for 3d visualization. This is deffinatly cool.
Whow, it’s impressive to see how this creature of a linux kernel grows in time.
…imagine some spaghetti Perl code in 3D 😉
The guy says that the below code
void f5(t u, unsigned t) {
switch ( t ) {
case 0: if ( u )
default: return;
}
}
works thanks to some GNU C specific features. Well, that’s definitely wrong, sinc the above code is perfectly legal ANSI C.
The Duff’s device (http://www.lysator.liu.se/c/duffs-device.html) exploits that feature as well.
What a great mind tool! Shame nobody uses it.
Looking at these rather beautiful movies makes me sad when I contemplate how conservative computerised development tools remain. Most software tools have evolved little since 1975.
If only interface designers would exploit the 3d capabilities of modern video cards, to allow software developers to visualise their designs.
Architects regularly use 3d to explore the spacial relationships between components in complex designs. OOP programmers struggle to get an understanding of even a few class relationships in a body of code. Even the 2D visualisations are primitive.
If 3d visualisations like these stunning ones were built into IDE tools, we could spread our limited brain power a lot further by exploring the object relationships in a design in virtual space.
Wouldn’t a 3d exploiting IDE open up immense possibilities for visualisation in areas such as debugging, performance profiling, messaging and interaction monitoring ?
What’s the point of this? It gives absolutely no usefull
information.
The only thing it could be usefull is for
some movie producer who know nothing about computers and
wants code to look more interesting for the audience.
Like in Jurasic Park, the famous comment “I know this, this is Unix!”
But it doesn’t give any information that can be helpfull
for developers other than, look how messy this code is.
‘What’s the point of this? It gives absolutely no usefull
information. ‘
Yes absolutely stupid.
Next people will be forking projects into as many crap segments as possible so that thier ‘cloud’ can look more complex.
I think that such visualisations are useful, at least in my research. I’m investigating how source code changes with time. And with large projects it can be very hard to get a good impression of what happening as the code base is devloped, a tool like this would definatly be useful for me…
Chris
Keep your left eye closed from now on, everyone who believes 3d visualisation produces no useful information.
Thanks for that brilliant, piece of information. For those who do not appreciate such amazin stuff!! Think again…
Its all mysterious, and probably has no real applications yet, but thats no reason, to get upset. Perhaps in the future…interaction?? There’s also a good article by that guy who coined the term Virtual reality…at java.sun.com
Over & Out.