Patent ID: 8365088

Claim:
One or more non-transitory computer-readable media holding executable instructions that when executed on a processor support interactions with bins of storage mechanisms holding information associated with program code while the program code executes, the media holding one or more executable instructions for: displaying a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising: a first region for displaying program code containing a plurality of variables, and a second region for displaying graphical representations for a plurality of storage mechanisms, where the plurality of storage mechanisms includes at least: a first representation having bin identifiers for representing bins that collectively make up a first storage mechanism, and a second representation having bin identifiers for representing bins that collectively make up a second storage mechanism; executing the program code using the processor, where the program code includes at least: a first variable that interacts with the first representation via the first storage mechanism when the program code executes, and a second variable that interacts with the second representation via the second storage mechanism when the code executes; determining values for data written to the bins of the first storage mechanism and to the bins of the second storage mechanism; representing the values for the bins of the first storage mechanism and for the second storage mechanism using a compact histogram density scale (CHDS), where the CHDS uses: a first color when the values are between an overflow threshold and an underflow threshold for a respective bin of the first storage mechanism or the second storage mechanism, a second color when the values exceed the overflow threshold for the respective bin of the first storage mechanism or the second storage mechanism, and a third color when the values exceed the underflow threshold for the respective bin of the first storage mechanism or the second storage mechanism, where, an intensity of the first color, the second color, or the third color varies based on a number of occurrences of values for the respective bin when the program code executes; receiving an instruction, where the instruction is related to the first representation; changing a parameter associated with the first representation in response to the instruction; and modifying, for the first representation, one or more of: the first color by changing the intensity of the first color for the respective bin of the first storage mechanism, the second color by changing the intensity of the second color for the respective bin of the first storage mechanism, and the third color by changing the intensity of the third color for the respective bin of the first storage mechanism.