Revision Towers

The use and development of open source software has increased significantly within the last decade. With it has come an increased, and necessary, use of version control tools to provide project management. A typical repository contains a mine of information that is not always obvious, and not easy to comprehend in its plain form. A visualisation has been created from this information to display how the repository has evolved. The visualisation allows the user to see where the active areas of the project are, how often, and how, changes are made, and how work is shared out across the project. Colour, layout and animation are all important features of the visualisation. In addition, issues of the importance and use of animation and consistency are raised A prototype tool has also been developed to show how the visualisation works in practice.