An Algorithmic Framework for Visualizing Statecharts

Statecharts [9] are widely used for the requirements specification of reactive systems. In this paper, we present a framework for the automatic generation of layouts of statechart diagrams. Our framework is based on several techniques that include hierarchical drawing, labeling, and floorplanning, designed to work in a cooperative environment. Therefore, the resulting drawings enjoy several important properties: they emphasize the natural hierarchical decomposition of states into substates; they have a low number of edge crossings; they have good aspect ratio; and require a small area. We have implemented our framework and obtained drawings for several statechart examples. The preliminary drawings are very encouraging.