Introduction

Ariadne is a Java-based plug-in to the Eclipse IDE that visualizes the social networks present in distributed software projects. Ariadne builds a call-graph from an Eclipse project using an appropriate call graph generator. After creating the call-graph, Ariadne automatically connects to the configuration management repository associated with the project to retrieve authorship information about the project. With this information, it creates a structure called a "social call-graph", or a call-graph annotated with authorship information. From the "social call-graph", Ariadne generates a sociogram and can display it as a graph using Prefuse. Graphs can be exported to an XML-based format, or matrix formats suitable for import into a wide range of visualization programs. Through Eclipse's plug-in mechanism, Ariadne supports custom visualizations, call graph generators, and project repositories extending the tool's base feature set.

Motivation

Software development is a complex process involving many developers working together to deliver a product. Researchers and practitioners have long recognized this collaborative aspect of software production, which emphasizes the importance of communication and coordination in successful software development efforts. One of the reasons why software development is difficult is the large number of dependencies that exist in the code. These dependencies create communication and coordination needs among software developers. Ariadne aims to unpack dependencies between software developers' tasks that arise due to dependencies in the code they are writing. It is a plug-in for the popular Eclipse Integrated Development Environment that provides visualizations of relationships between software engineers, from the code they write. By integrating Ariadne into Eclipse, we hope to facilitate its adoption among professional software developers.