ANNOUNCEMENT: A visualization tool for compiler graphs

--------------------------------------------------------------------
            Announcement: A visualization tool for compiler graphs
--------------------------------------------------------------------


The VCG Tool
============
A Visualization Tool for compiler graphs




DESCRIPTION
          The VCG tool reads a textual and readable specification of a
          graph and visualizes the graph. If not all positions of
          nodes are fixed, the tool layouts the graph using several
          heuristics as reducing the number of crossings, minimizing
          the size of edges, centering of nodes. The specification
          language of the VCG tool is nearly compatible to GRL, the
          language of the edge tool, but contains many extensions. The
          VCG tool allows folding of dynamically or statically speci-
          fied regions of the graph. It uses colors and runs on
          Sunview or X11.


          The VCG tool has been developed and tested on a Sparc ELC with
          SunOs 4.1.3, Sunview and X11 Release 5, and different ANSI C
          and K&R C compilers. It has further been tested on a Silicon
          Graphics (IRIX 4.0.5), on a IBM R6000 (AIX 2 with AIX Windows),
          and on Linux (X11R5, gcc).




FEATURES
          0) The VCG tool is not a graph editor. It is intended to
visualize large graphs that are automatically generated by
programs, e.g. debuggers of data structures in compilers.


          1) Speed is always the first priority. Examples:


Type | Nr.of nodes | Nr.of edges | Time | Mode
                -------------------------------------------------------------
                tree | 4095 | 4096 | 15 sec. | normal
graph | 70 | 104 | 3 sec. | normal
graph | 75 | 3983 | 89 sec. | -f (fast mode)


The graph 3 with 75 specified nodes and 3983 edges consists of
21694 internal nodes and 23540 internal edge segments.


The tests were done using a xvcg (X11 version, compiled by
gcc version 2.4.5, gcc options -O -finline-functions).
They were done on a Sparc 10/30 (arch = sun4m) with 32 MB
main memory.
The times include time for loading, layouting and displaying.


          2) The layout algorithm can be controlled in different ways.
There are 11 basic layout methods and two variants of crossing
reduction.
Further, the priorities of edges and the number of layout
iterations may be set to influence the layout.


          3) Folding of subgraphs, of dynamically specified regions and
the hiding of classes of edges allow to select exactly the
part of the graph that is of interest.


          4) Arbitrary zooming of graphs.


          5) Color support.


          6) Export into PBM-P4 files (black and white) or PPM-P6 files
(color). For these formats, there are a lot of converters
and printer drivers in the world.


          7) Interface to program animations that provide the VCG tool
with a sequence of graph descriptions.




LICENSE CONDITIONS
          Copyright (C) 1993, 1994 by Iris Lemke, Georg Sander, and
                                                                  the Compare Consortium


          This work is supported by the ESPRIT project 5399 Compare.
          We thank the Compare Consortium for the permission to distribute
          this software and documentation freely. You can redistribute
          it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
          the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License.


          The members of the Compare Consortium are ACE Associated Computer
          Experts bv, GMD Forschungsstelle an der Universitaet Karlsruhe,
          Harlequin Limited, INRIA, STERIA, Stichting Mathematisch Centrum (CWI),
          and Universitaet des Saarlandes.


          The Compare Consortium will neither assume responsibility for any
          damages caused by the use of its products, nor accept warranty or
          update claims. This product is distributed in the hope that it will
          be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty
          of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
          GNU General Public License for more details.




AVAILABILITY
          The software is available by anonymous ftp at ftp.cs.uni-sb.de
          (134.96.7.254) in the directory /pub/graphics/vcg. This site is
          in Germany.
          The package is vcg.3.4.tgz.


          Contact sander@cs.uni-sb.de for additional information.




AUTHORS
          Georg Sander, University of Saarland, 66041 Saarbruecken, Germany.
          Iris Lemke, University of Saarland, 66041 Saarbruecken, Germany.


          The VCG tool has been developed at the Institute for Compiler
          Construction, Department of Computer Science, at the University
          of Saarland, conducted by Prof. Dr. R. Wilhelm.
--
| Georg Sander - FB 14 Informatik - Universitaet des Saarlandes |
| sander@cs.uni-sb.de 66041 Saarbruecken, Germany |
| --------------><--------------- Phone: +49-681-302-3054 |
--

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.