aiSee is based on the graph layout tool VCG (Visualization of Compiler Graphs). The work on VCG started as a diploma thesis at Saarland University in 1991. The goal was to develop a tool that supports the understanding of the internal data structures of a compiler.
It became soon clear that such a graph layout tool was very useful in the context of compiler construction, e.g, for the debugging of compilers. The department for programming languages and compiler construction at Saarland University decided to increase the efforts in the graph layout area, and VCG was redesigned, widely extended and reimplemented.
The VCG tool won the Graph Visualization Competitions
- In Princeton in 1994 (in the "Directed Graphs" category)
- In Passau in 1995 (in category A, with honorable mention in category B)
In 1994 and 1995, versions of limited functionality of VCG were published "under the terms of the GNU General Public License" with partially obfuscated sources. The latest published version was 1.3. The port to Windows3.1 of VCG 1.3 (which was called VCG 1.4 MS alpha) was only distributed in binary form.
The obfuscated sources and binary distribution which contradict the idea of the GNU General Public License prevented a further development of VCG outside of Saarland University.
The development of the non-public version of VCG at Saarland University continued until 1996.
In January 2000, AbsInt Angewandte Informatik GmbH licensed the non-public version of VCG from the Saarland University for commercial usage.
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