The Paradox of Software Visualization

Software visualization seems like such a logical and helpful concept with obvious benefits and advantages. But after decades of research and work, it has yet to be successful in any mainstream development environment. What is the reason for this paradox? Will software visualization ever be actually widely used? In this paper we argue that most past and current work in the field (our own included) is out of touch with the reality of software development and that new approaches and new ideas are needed