Tools to document/visualize call graph?

Question

having recently joined a project with a vast amount of code to get to grips with, I would like to start documenting and visualizing some of the flows through the call graph to give me a better understanding of how everything fits together. This is what I would like to see in my ideal tool:

• every node is a function/method
• nodes are connected if one function can call another
• optional square box in between detailing conditions under which call is made (or a label icon you can hover over like a tooltip)
• also icon on edge describing parameters
• hover over node and description is displayed
• optional icons for node to display pseudo code
• scenario/domain view - display subset of complete diagram for particular use-case
• slide view mode - for each frame, the currently executing function is highlighted
• plenty of options over what to display to reduce on-screen clutter

the interactive use of such a tool is key, I'm not looking for a Graphviz type solution because there would be too much clutter. The ability to form a view of a subset of the entire graph would be very handy (maybe with the unimportant clutter greyed out). Don't need automatic generation from source code, happy to enter it manually.

Almost like a mind-map.

Does that make sense? If you are not aware of such a tool, do you also think it would be useful? (Just in case I decide to go and scratch that itch one day!)

Answer 1

To develop further the answer of Willem van Rumpt, with the tool NDepend, you can indeed obtain a call graph like this one. Disclaimer: I am one of the developers of the tool

For that you just need to export to the graph the result of a CQLinq code query:

Such a code query, can be generated actually for any method, thanks to the right-click menu illustrated below.

Answer 2

You don't mention the environment you're using, but if it's .NET, NDepend might come in handy.