A Different Approach to Hard Drive Visualization for Mac
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AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF John Batch for the degree of Honors Baccalaureate of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Honors Baccalaureate of Science in Computer Science presented on May 20, 2008. Title: DiskGrapher: A Different Approach to Hard Drive Visualization for Mac OS X. Abstract approved: __________________________________________________ Timothy A. Budd DiskGrapher is a graphical visualization tool designed to help users better manage the space on their hard drives. The main goal of DiskGrapher is to provide a different visualization technique to display information, with the goal of providing a more intuitive understanding of the directory structure of the disk than the Treemap visualization technique, commonly found on hard drive visualization applications. By providing the user with better information about the directory structure of the disk, and presenting the information in a manner which the user is more likely to be familiar with, the program will help users to better manage used disk space. This thesis describes the features of many of the competing programs in hard drive visualization, as well as giving a detailed look at the structure and development of the DiskGrapher. Key Words: DiskGrapher, Disk Management, Visualization, Computer Science, Computer Engineering Email Address: [email protected] ©Copyright by John Batch May 20, 2008 All Rights Reserved DiskGrapher: A Different Approach to Hard Drive Visualization for Mac OS X By John Batch A PROJECT Submitted to Oregon State University University Honors College In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Honors Baccalaureate of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering Honors Baccalaureate of Science in Computer Science Presented May 20, 2008 Commencement June 2008 Honors Baccalaureate of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Honors Baccalaureate of Computer Science project of John Batch presented on May 20, 2008. APPROVED: ________________________________________________________________________ Timothy A. Budd, representing Computer Science ________________________________________________________________________ Christine Wallace, representing Computer Science ________________________________________________________________________ Mike Bailey, representing Computer Science ________________________________________________________________________ Terri Fiez, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science ________________________________________________________________________ Daniel J. Arp, University Honors College I understand that my project will become part of the permanent collection of Oregon State University, University Honors College. My signature below authorizes release of my project to any reader upon request ________________________________________________________________________ John Batch, Author Table of Contents I. Introduction .......................................................................................................................1 Project Motivations ...........................................................................................................1 Project Goals.....................................................................................................................2 Outline ..............................................................................................................................2 II. Comparison with Existing Programs.................................................................................4 Baseline ............................................................................................................................4 Overview.......................................................................................................................4 Observations..................................................................................................................5 Key Differences.............................................................................................................6 Filelight.............................................................................................................................7 Overview.......................................................................................................................7 Observations..................................................................................................................7 Key Differences.............................................................................................................9 GrandPerspective ..............................................................................................................9 Overview.......................................................................................................................9 Observations................................................................................................................10 Key Differences...........................................................................................................11 III. DiskGrapher’s Visualization Technique ........................................................................12 Visualization Details .......................................................................................................12 Visualization Advantages ................................................................................................13 IV. Program Requirements..................................................................................................16 System Features ..............................................................................................................16 Hard Drive Scan..........................................................................................................16 Visualization of Directory Structure ............................................................................16 External Interface Requirements......................................................................................17 User Interface..............................................................................................................17 Software Interfaces......................................................................................................19 V. System Architecture .......................................................................................................20 System Model .................................................................................................................20 What is MVC?.............................................................................................................20 MVC in DiskGrapher ..................................................................................................21 Class Structure ................................................................................................................22 Model Classes .............................................................................................................22 View Class ..................................................................................................................23 Controller Class...........................................................................................................24 Table of Contents (cont) VI. Future Project Plans ......................................................................................................25 Speed ..............................................................................................................................25 Visualization Update .......................................................................................................25 Small File Visualization ..................................................................................................26 User Customization .........................................................................................................27 VII. Conclusion...................................................................................................................28 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................29 Appendices .........................................................................................................................31 Appendix A: The Treemap Display .................................................................................31 Table of Figures Figure 1: Baseline Main Windows with Completed Scan ................................................5 Figure 2: Filelight Main Window with a Folder Scan ......................................................8 Figure 3: GrandPerspective Window showing available color schemes .........................10 Figure 4: Simple Visual Example..................................................................................13 Figure 5: Example showing several directory levels ......................................................14 Figure 6: Main Window of DiskGrapher .......................................................................17 Figure 7: Window displaying file info...........................................................................18 Figure 8: DiskGrapher Class Diagram...........................................................................22 Figure 9: Example Directory Tree (Left) and corresponding Treemap (Right) ...............31 I. Introduction The external hard disk storage available on computers