Software Diagnostics and Observability Institute

Memory analysis icons were introduced more than 15 years ago, in March 2010, as part of computer memory semiotics (memiotics). Over the next year and a half, 101 icons were created (with black and white equivalents). These iconic representations are both icons and indexes in the sense of Pierce’s three types of signs: icon signs resemble artifacts or the current state of affairs, and index signs have some causal or relationship connection through interpretation. More than two years ago, in March 2023, we introduced Iconic Traces. These traces also consist of iconic representations that are both indexical and iconic signs, as they resemble the patterns, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic content of trace messages, message blocks, and applied trace analysis patterns. The Dia|gram language (introduced in 2016) pictures are another great example of complex iconic (structure) and indexical (behavior, observation, measurement) signs (including memory). The Space-like Narratology and the Lov language further extend the semiotic approach.