jGRASP is a lightweight development environment, created specifically to provide automatic generation of software visualizations to improve the comprehensibility of software. jGRASP is implemented in Java, and runs on all platforms with a Java Virtual Machine (Java version 1.5 or higher). jGRASP produces Control Structure Diagrams (CSDs) for Java, C, C++, Objective-C, Ada, and VHDL; Complexity Profile Graphs (CPGs) for Java and Ada; UML class diagrams for Java; and has dynamic object viewers that work in conjunction with an integrated debugger and workbench for Java. The viewers include a data structure identifier mechanism which recognizes objects that represent traditional data structures such as stacks, queues, linked lists, binary trees, and hash tables, and then displays them in an intuitive textbook-like presentation view.

jGRASP is developed by the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering at Auburn University.

jGRASP version 1.8.6_08 fixes a bug which caused a system "quit" on Mac OS X to kill jGRASP without saving modified files if the user chose to cancel the "quit".

jGRASP version 1.8.6_07 fixes a maximized window layout bug on some Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) systems, and startup shell problems on some Linux systems.

jGRASP version 1.8.6_05 fixes issues on Intel Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) systems, and Windows systems with 64 bit Java.

jGRASP version 1.8.6 includes improved structure recognition for the "Structure Identifier" viewer. Development of this viewer is ongoing.

jGRASP version 1.8.5 Beta introduced the "Structure Identifier" viewer. This viewer attempts to automatically recognize and display linked lists, binary trees, and array wrappers (lists, stacks, queues, etc.) during debugging or workbench use.

jGRASP versions 1.8.4 Beta through 1.8.4 added many new viewers and viewer features. Startup settings for Mac OS X have been added (selection of JVM, max heap size, etc.). Built-in support for Intel-based Macs was added in 1.8.4 Beta2.

The development of jGRASP has been supported by a research grant from the National Science Foundation.

The development of previous versions of GRASP was supported by research grants from NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), and the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).