Visualizing parallel workspace activities

Abstract

Palantír is a configuration management workspace awareness tool that continuously informs developers of the changes that are made in parallel by other developers in other workspaces. In order to achieve its goal of reducing the number of merge conflicts when developers commit their artifacts, Palantír deliberately breaks traditional workspace isolation in order to promote better coordination of parallel activities. In this paper we examine four different visualizations that developers can use for visualizing the activities in other workspaces. We discuss their strengths and weaknesses, role within Palantír, and opportunities for future improvements.