Patent ID: 8635598

Claim:
A method of automatically generating code decorations that facilitate comparison of different versions for a body of code, the method comprising acts of: a review computing system accessing a body of code for which different versions of the code are to be reviewed and compared; generating a plurality of decorations each comprised of a data structure that when rendered results in a visual marking for a selected portion of code that is to be decorated for one of the different versions of the code, and the data structure for each decoration performing the following acts when rendered by a review computing system: evaluating a context of the selected portion of code that is to be decorated; identifying a particular decoration corresponding to that context; and adding the particular decoration to the selected portion of code in a manner that results in a visualization that identifies the selected portion of code based on the particular decoration added to the selected portion of code; displaying on a user interface the selected portion of code to which the particular decoration has been added in a manner that permits comparison of the decorated selected portion of code for one of the different versions of code with another version of the code; and reference indicators that display indications of current vertical position of both the decorated selected portion of code for said one version of the code and a corresponding vertical position of the other version of code to which the decorated selected portion of code is being compared, the current vertical position of the indications indicating where the displayed code is generally located in relation to the entire code for each version being displayed; and prior to displaying the decorated selected portion of code for comparison with another version of the code, the review computing system transforming the code to be displayed into a format that facilitates easier review of the code.