The Baby Bells’ Bell Communications Research co-operative in Piscataway, New Jersey has come up with a software prototype that can translate the source code of large and complex computer programs into easy-to-understand maps and pictures to show at a glance how the various parts work together and how they are related to each other: the graphical display technology for the Heavens system was developed at another co-op, the Microelectronics & Computer Technology Corp in Austin, Texas the Graphical Entity Relationship Modeller, and, using Heavens, programmers load the C language source code of the system they wish to change onto a graphics workstation whereupon Heavens converts the source code into visual representations which can be customised by the programmers; straight lines link one icon to another to show relationships between data, and programmers can get additional information – in the form of text or graphic detail – by pointing to an icon or to the connecting link.
