[micro-survey] metamodels of hierarchical exploration tools

what are the metamodels that people use when doing hierarchical graph analysis of software systems.

shrimp - the metamodel is a generalized nested graph. in "manipulating and documenting software structures" (stor-manip) storey discusses the introduction o fhte nested graphs formalism by d. harel. 
(harel-visform)


Nested graphs, in addition to nodes and
arcs, contain composite nodes which are used for denoting
set inclusion. The containment or nesting feature
of composite nodes implicitly cornmunicates the
parent-child relakionships in a hierarchy. In SHriMP a
non-leaf node is open when its children are visible and
closed when its (children are hidden from view.
[...]
Composite nodes correslpond to subsystems in the software.
Composite arcs represent a collection of dependencies.
Composite nodes may contain other composite nodes
and arcs as well as atomic nodes and arcs. This nesting
feature of nodes communicates the hierarchical structure
of the software (e.g. subsystem or class hierarchies)




rigi

rigi's model seems to be pretty cool and general.

The Rigi model is a conceptual model for the representation
and organization of the “bricks” and “mortar” of complex
software systems. It is best characterized as a special purpose
semantic network (graph) data The semantics of the
model are a careful definition of the meaning and usage of the
nodes and arcs. The nodes and arcs of the graph represent the
components of a software system and their dependencies. For
example, a node may represent a subsystem, an interface, a variant,
a revision, a specification, a data set, or a picture; an arc may
represent a change, compilation, binding, revision, or aggregation
dependence.

Bauhaus

really impressive piece of engineering.


Information extracted from the source code is represented
in a resource graph (RG) [2], which abstracts from
a particular source language by only representing global
information such as call, type, and use relations.



Examples of relationships range from information
that can be directly extracted from the source code (e.g.,
function calls) to more abstract concepts (e.g., communication
between a client and a server)

The resulting graph can then be visualized and manipulated
in Bauhaus with our extension of the graph editor Rigi

(from the xfig paper)


micro-survey which may be related: is interaction modes. do the composite nodes need to be mapped on existing programming 
language concepts such as packages and modules and difrectories or they can be anything?