Software Cinema

About a month ago, I found that several refactoring patterns are expressed with thumbnails [1]. The following figure is Evolving to the Strategy Pattern thumbnail, expressed by several refactoring thumbnails, referred from [1].


And yesterday, when I was checking the differences between JUnit 3.x and JUnit 4.x, I found it again in the document of JUnit 4.x [2] release. The following figure is referred from JUnit 4.x document.


This figure contains rich information, and clearly shows the global picture of how and the order design patterns were composed in the design of JUnit 4.x, without revealing the details.

I myself usually do the similar thing when sketching the initial design idea, however there is no patterns or fixed forms of my sketch. The lack of regulation in the sketches makes the design granularity and leveling hard to control.

It would be wonderful if there exists a design tool that can hold the design granularity and leveling control for me...maybe by the design thumbnailing support ?

References
[1] Refactoring Thumbnails, URL : http://refactoring.be/thumbnails.html
[2] JUnit, URL : http://www.junit.org/