Looking for code visualizers

Wed Feb 16 14:02:37 PST 2005

A tool I use that I've found the best in the industry for this is 
xrefactory. It comes in 2 versions, java/C language for $29, and C/C++ 
for $300 or so. It does a full syntactic analysis of the code, and can 
thus do things like dereference structure members correctly, even though 
they have the same name as other variables. It also understands scoping 
correctly. I haven't used the C/C++ version - it has a commercial parser 
front end, and supposedly handles gcc compilerisms better. It has emacs 
and jedit integration - I switched editor to jedit just because of the 
tool - I find it that useful.

There is a free trial for the C/java version.

Simon

Mark C. Langston wrote:

>In my new job, software archaeology has become someowhat a necessity.
>So, I'm currently on the lookout for GOOD code visualizers.
>
>What I'd ideally like:
>
>Something that'll do function call graphs based on source code or .rtl
>output from gcc.
>
>Something that'll allow me do drill-down and weed out the call trees I'm
>uninterested in, interactively (or easily in a noninteractive manner)
>
>Something that doesn't require hooking into live code (as the code in
>question runs on specialized hardware, making this somewhat difficult).
>
>Something that'll grok C with the occasional C++ file.
>
>Something that'll take as input a source tree for a particular binary,
>and do the smart thing, pulling in the requisite headers and libraries
>as part of the visualization.
>
>Something that'll give me hints towards things like uninitialized and/or
>dereferenced pointers.
>
>Something that'll let me drill down a function call graph to a specific
>function, and get a look at the arguments, and how those arguments
>change up and down that call graph (e.g., I start out in function A,
>initializing pointer *a, and callfunction B, passing it &a, but B calls
>it c, and it never actually gets initialized/assigned a value until it's
>handed down to function F, and there's a nonzero possibility that
>function A is expecting *a to remain unmolested beyond certain
>boundaries, and functions G, H, and I do Bad THings(TM).
>
>
>
>Free would be nice.
>
>
>Alternately, something that can take a precompiled binary and do
>something similar, without executing the binary or being on the platform
>capable of executing the binary would be nice.
>
>
>
>Yes, I know part of what I'm describing can be done with gdb/ddd, but
>gdb/ddd are great for walking through coredumps, assuming you've not
>corrupted the stack and you do All The Right Things(TM) regarding
>variable initialization and pointer referencing.  Do bad things, and
>gdb/ddd is a mess.  It's also a bit of a PITA to do call traces with
>DDD.
>
>
>I vaguely remember seeing a commercial product (around $1k) demo'd at
>BH2004 that could do such things with two different versions of the dame
>binary, without access to source, but IIRC it was Windows-only and the
>code had to execute to make things work.
>
>
>Anyway, free or otherwise, pointers to stuff that'll do some/all of this
>on *BSD (FreeBSD, OS X) or Linux would be greatly appreciated.
>
>
>
>Alternately, a pointer to a REALLY USEFUL collection of scripts that'll
>produce interesting .dot files for feeding into dotty/graphviz would be
>most welcome.
>
>
>Gracias.
>
>
>
>
>
>  
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