Dirk Ohst
ABSTRACT
This paper addresses the problem of how to detect and visualise differences between versions of UML documents such as class or object diagrams. Our basic approach for showing the differences between two documents is to use a unified document which contains the common and specific parts of both base documents; the specific parts are highlighted. The main problems are (a) how to abstract from modifications done to the layout and other (document type-specific) details which are considered irrelevant; (b) how to deal with structural changes such as the shifting of an operation from one class to another; (c) how to reduce the amount of highlighted information. Our approach is based on the assumption that software documents are modelled in a fine-grained way, i.e. they are stored as syntax trees in XML files or in a repository system, and that the version management system supports fine-grained data. Our difference computation algorithm detects structural changes and enables their appropriate visualisation. Highlighting can be restricted on the basis of the types of the elements and on the basis of the revision history, e.g. only changes which occurred during a particular editing session are highlighted.
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Index Terms
- Differences between versions of UML diagrams
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