Object Oriented Visualization

Object Oriented Visualization

Bill Lorensen of General Electric Corporate R&D gave the first presentation on “Object Oriented Visualization”. He was one of the co-authors with James Rumbaugh of the book Object-Oriented Modeling and Design (1991) that laid out the OMT method. The inclusion of the OSCAR and LYMB animation system as an example in that book was one of the primary reasons I read it, so hearing Bill speak on the subject was enjoyable. The talk covered the motivations for using Object Orientation (OO) in a visualization toolkit or environment and the differences between the system and toolkit approaches to visualization tools. The talk started with a simple diagram showing the basic data flow within a visualization system:

Visualization Data Flow

He then discussed the goals of OO Visualization as reusability, portability, longevity and simplicity. The OO approach, with its modularity, abstraction and encapsulation is well suited to visualization because it is an evolving area. The OO approach deals well with the complexity of visualization, and readily maps application domains to the graphic domain. Bill noted that OO is good - if you have the right abstractions and enforce a methodology. It can produce poor designs if the developers do not understand OO or stick with the methodology (strict coding standards, naming conventions, careful object design, etc). The speed of OO can come close to matching non-OO approaches if you are careful about the selection of abstractions and language. OO abstraction helps protect you against future changes.