Tool-supported compression of UML class diagrams

Abstract

Techniques for tool-supported compression of UML class diagrams are developed. These techniques allow abstract representations of class diagrams by effacing (less essential) parts of the diagram. The hidden parts can be made again visible at selected points. The user can start examining a class diagram with only few main classes visible and refine the diagram gradually to the interesting directions, proceeding from abstract view to details. The proposed techniques help in managing large class diagrams and in extracting high-level views from object-oriented legacy systems, thus supporting the understanding of the overall architecture of the system. The construction of the compressed form of a class diagram can be either automatic or it can be controlled by a human. An algorithm is given for managing compressed class diagrams, and a prototype implementation is described.