Get a Bird's Eye View of Your Large Code Bases Using Structure101

here are tons of tools developers can use to inspect code they write at the code level, and some even provide metrics about how complex aspects of the code are, but few work at a higher level of abstraction. Headway Software wants to change that and aims to provide a design-level view of the structure of a code base, point out where the fat and interdependencies are, and show you exactly how these impact your code in much more of a graphical way than most developers are used to with a program called Structure101.

Currently, Structure101 supports Java code but Headway officials say they will add support for C/C++, .NET, and Ada in future releases, though no specific timeline has been announced. Structure101 is written in Java and is available with runtimes for Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX. It comes in three flavors:

• Standalone Client: This application can be used to interactively analyze Java byte code. Data can be published to a Structure101 repository to be shared. The cost is $499 per developer license.
• Publisher: This version extracts data created by the standalone application and can be integrated into a build environment. The cost is $999 per server license.
• Publisher Web Application: This version provides web access to the Structure101 repository as well as cross-project trend comparisons. This application is available for free.

The two main areas that Headway says Structure101 is targeted to assist with are to help control structural complexity and overall component architecture. It does this by allowing you to select your compiled code, to analyze the relationships and interdependencies of your code, to view this information directly in an interactive user interface—and to publish it for the whole team to use.