SOURCE CODE SEMANTIC ZOOM AND SPATIAL LAYOUT

The present disclosure describes an apparatus and a method for contemporaneously viewing code structure in a diagram as well as source code facilitated by a semantic zoom and pan feature and enabled via use of advanced rendering engines. The apparatus and method support in-place editing where edits are represented on the diagram in real-time. One example system includes a diagramming surface, an advanced rendering engine, viewers with controls and data retrieval modules, a data store with data loaded from source code well as external sources, and workers possibly implemented as background threads to monitor changes. One example method enables layers where a subset of data is viewed and a corresponding control is used to manipulate the data. An advanced rendering engine enables a wide range of user interface techniques, including but not limited to semantic zoom and pan and in-place editing.