Help!

I've Fallen (into code), and Can't Get up!

(Automatic Visualization of the Frontend)

Cameron Yick | @hydrosquall

data vis @ Datadog

past

⚡️ Electrical Engineering - Circuits
🚿 Data Engineering - Pipelines

present

🌞 : Visualizing your Cloud at Datadog
🌖 : Historical + Art Experiments

historical Remake

(NYC Train schedule)

Based on the cover graphic from Edward Tufte's Visual Display of Quantitative Information

git/Trello history

FEELING LOST?

lost (in code)

Join project / team
npm install new lib
Investigating bug while on call
Visit code from 1 month (or hour) ago

getting unlost in the real world

Wander
- Landmarks / signs
Directions
- local vs fellow tourist
Map
- GPS (You are here)
- Visual route

getting unlost in the Real code World

Wander (scroll + ctrl+f + grep)
- Landmarks: (entrypoint, data structures)
- Signs: comments / README
- Signal flares: breakpoints / console.log
Directions
- ```
git blame / CODEOWNERS
```

Maps
- A flowchart somewhere (if you're lucky)

maps: the first data visualizations

...graphical representations that facilitate spatial understanding of things... 

- Harley & Woodward, History of Cartography

maps are abstract (!🐛)

"Not only is it easy to lie with maps, it's essential...

To avoid hiding critical information in a fog of detail, the map must offer a selective, incomplete view of reality"

- Mark Monmonier, "How to Lie With Maps"

the ideal

abstraction level

situation specific.

WHEN (FIXING BUGS | ADDING FEATURES)

which areas do I need to understand / change?

maps & unknown unknowns: Dragons

Marine Map of Scandinavia: 1539

today's plan

past
- intro to research
present
- tools we can use now
future
- making tools beyond maps

PAST

Present

Future

A technique from 18 Years B.R. (Before React)

the eternal question

How can we keep the plan and the implementation in sync?

"Software Reflexion Models" (1995)

Gail c. Murphy, Kevin Sullivan, DAVID NOTKIN

(Manual) Make high level concept model
(Manual) Associate concepts with source code
(Automatic) Generate automatic source code relationships
- Imports, call graphs, data flow
(Automatic) Combine
- Add mapping (2) and relationships (3) to the concept model (1)
- Visualize the difference

stages of reflexion

the differences are where the bugs hide!

"Connecting task to source" (Murphy 2014)

Data API

Container

View

1. Container/View concept model

Imported by

React Reflexion example

// data-service.js
export const fetchItems = async () => fetch('/api/items');

// List.jsx
import { formatItems } from './data-service';
const formatItems = (items) = items.map(formatItem);

export const List = (props) => {
  return (
  <div>
    {formatItems(props.items)}
  </div>
  )
}

// ListContainer.jsx
import { fetchItems } from './data-service';

export const ListContainer = (props) => {
  // pseudocode for data fetching
  const items = await fetchItems(); 
  return <List items={items}/>
}

2. Map Concepts to files

data-api: *-service.js
container: *Container.jsx
view: *.jsx

3. extract file import tree

Data API

Container

View

everything matches!

Matching

Missing

Unexpected

2 sprints later...

```
Added /people API 
```
"Refactoring"
All unit tests still pass

// data-service.js
export const fetchItems = async () => fetch('/api/items');
export const formatItems = (items) => items.map(item => processItem(item));

// Someone unfamiliar with project structure proposes a new change
export const fetchPeople = async () => fetch('/api/people');

// List.jsx
import { formatItems, fetchItems, fetchPeople } from './data-service';

export const List = (props) => {
  const items = await fetchItems();
  const people = await fetchPeople(); 
  
  return (
  <div>
    {formatItems(items)}
    {people}
  </div>
  )
}

// ListContainer.jsx
export const ListContainer = (props) => {
  // some other code for logging, routing etc
  return <List />
}

changes

Data API

Container

View

post refactor reflexion

Matching

Missing

Unexpected

Refactored

New import

Data API - how will we fix it?

Deciding the fate of Data API:
- Is it for HTTP, transformation, or both?
Change the code
- Move functions around
Change the concept
- Rename Data more specifically
- Make separate blocks for HTTP/Transform

"Connecting task to source" (murphy 2014)

question Revisited

How can we keep the plan and implementation in sync?

reflexion takeaways

Model and code can both be "right", highlight the gap
- map & territory blur as needs change
People + machines are good at different things
- effective tools let each focus on their strengths

Tools usable now

PAST

Present

Future

how can we keep maps + code in sync today?

*without extra manual steps

signal processing +

visual programming

MaxMSP (audio)

meemoo - web-based graphics

visual / node programming 🐰🕳

github.com/ivanreese/visual-programming-codex

We don't have this for JS

(and this won't help our existing applications)

what (useful) visuals can be generated from code?

DG + DAG

(Directed Acyclic Graphs)

A B

B "uses" A

what do nodes represent?

Continent (Eurasia)

Country

Subnational (State, Province, County)

City

Neighborhood

Ladder of geoPolitical Abstraction

Specific

Broader

it's not about size

UK (country) projected onto Texas (US State)

Imports (module/file)

Call graphs (function)

Dataflow (variable)

Down the Ladder of code Abstraction (for Nodes)

Specific

Abstract

module imports

const node = "file"
`Which ${node} might be affected 
 by changes to other ${node}s?`

ARKit

https://arkit.pro

npx arkit

ARKit: conceptual Groups

https://arkit.pro

See Github for Client/Server example

dependency-cruiser: folders

https://www.netlify.com/blog/2018/08/23/how-to-easily-visualize-a-projects-dependency-graph-with-dependency-cruiser/

madge: COlors + extensible API

https://github.com/pahen/madge

FUnction calL

GRAPHS

const node = "function"
`Which ${node} might be affected 
 by changes to other ${node}s?`

*Not necessarily DAG (Recursion / Loops)

dynamic callgraphs

Record of actual run (single path though tree)

Dynamic variations (🔥/❄️/☀️)

STATIC CALLGRAPH 🚧

(Python Pyan: Flask Example)

Euan Richard's article for Parkbee Tech

persper/JS-callgraph 🚧

Have data, seeking visualization

datafloW (variables)

const node = "variable"
`Which ${node} might be affected 
 by changes to other ${node}s?`

EXCEL + js + jupyter = observable

reactive js Notebook

Observable Dataflow

https://observablehq.com/@mbostock/notebook-visualizer

Reselect-toolS

https://github.com/skortchmark9/reselect-tools

https://redux-starter-kit.js.org/

- Reposition/Highlight upstream / downstream

- Inspect runtime values

- Count recomputations (hotspots)

reselect @ runtime

State machines

Automatic visual documentation

const pedestrianStates = {
  initial: 'walk',
  states: {
    walk: {
      on: {
        PED_TIMER: 'wait'
      }
    },
    wait: {
      on: {
        PED_TIMER: 'stop'
      }
    },
    stop: {}
  }
};
const lightMachine = Machine({
  id: 'light',
  initial: 'green',
  states: {
    green: {
      on: {
        TIMER: 'yellow'
      }
    },
    yellow: {
      on: {
        TIMER: 'red'
      }
    },
    red: {
      on: {
        TIMER: 'green'
      },
      ...pedestrianStates
    }
  }
});
// via xstate docs page

Xstate traffic light

See @DavidKPiano's XState Talks

light
  green
    timer -> yellow
  yellow
    timer -> red
  red
    walk
      ped_timer -> wait
    wait
     ped_timer -> stop
    stop
     timer -> green

Sketch.systems

- Generate XState Code from YAML-like markup

- Auto-generated clickable diagram

Live Example

ideas to make existing maps more useful

PAST

Present

Future

2 Challenges + approaches

1. Hairball -> Visual Search Mantra

2. Wayfinding -> Adding Data

Scientists face hairballs too!

Future: Biofabric / Hive Plots / Hyperbolic Tree / other non-mainstream layouts

would you take a hairball seriously?

Source: EagerEyes / It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

show everything,

notice nothing

- not a real Yoda quote

🗺: we don't need to show everything.

Source: AxisMaps

Source: Mapbox / Nathaniel Slaughter on Medium

map taxonomies chart (16 Levels)

information seeking mantra

Ben "Hyperlink" Schneiderman (The Eyes Have It, 1996)

1. overview first

2. Zoom + Filter

3. Details on Demand

mantra applied

1. overview first

2. Zoom + Filter

3. Details on Demand

Automatic summary

Visual pruning

Click for detail

demo electron app

Examining JSNetworkX + nteract

1. overview: madge + interactions + color

2. Filtering: prune Files/Folders

2. Filtering: undo/refine menu

Filtering enables alternate layouts

3: details on demand: neighbors

3: details... git metadata

wayfinding: annotating space

- information systems from architecture (signage)

- Help people to orient themselves

- Enhance understanding + experience of complex spaces

core Wayfinding questions

Orientation
- Where am I?
Selection
- Where should I go?
Monitoring
- Am I on track?
Destination ID
- Are we there yet?

just add water data

geographic maps are just the beginning (base Layer)

Weather

Flight Coverage

node success status (Airflow)

Function usage (python)

Reselect, Python Call Craph, FlameGraphs all do this

mapping search results

1. Pick a search tool

(grep, Sourcegraph, etc)

2. Pick a map

3. Combine them

finding #todos

JSNetworkx/src/algorithms

more "details on Demand"

maps- not just for the physical world

PAST

Present

Future

Recap

Highlight plan gaps / use human + machine strengths
Automatic visuals exist for all steps of the ladder (9+ tools)
Try info seeking mantra + wayfinding to make it actionable

We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us

- Attributed to Marshall McLuhan

Looking forward to seeing pictures of your maps 🗺

(code related or otherwise)

Thank you!

Twitter: @hydrosquall

Pronouns: he/him

Demos/Resources: github.com/hydrosquall/code-maps-frontend

Datadog: We're hiring! (React/Typescript/WebGL/Go/Etc)

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demo built with

Electron
- Electron React Boilerplate
- Hot reloaded server: James Long's electron-with-server
Graph visualization / analysis
- Vis.js
- Cytoscape + dagre layout
- JSNetworkX
Data
- Madge - module dependencies
- node-gitlog - git history
- directory-tree
- ripgrep: search
Material-ui, dis.gui, immer

Automatic Visualization of the Frontend (React Conf 2019)

By Cameron Yick

Automatic Visualization of the Frontend (React Conf 2019)

Visualization isn't just about charts. Developers spend most of their time trying to understand existing code, which often lacks documentation about design-level concepts. Handcrafted diagrams are useful but get out of date, and traditional code search only helps if you know what words to look for. We don't navigate the real world by examining every sector of a geographic map, so why should we scan code line-by-line? This talk will showcase the past, present, and future of visual tools for automatically generating maps of code, using inspiration from older typed languages and HCI research. https://conf.reactjs.org/event.html?hydrosquall

3,217

Cameron Yick

data vis engineer @datadoghq. currently into visual exaptation | creative (en)coding | metalearning | swimming. he/him