Eliot - an Algorithm Animation Environment

• Main Authors: Eliot An Algorithm Animation, Erkki Sutinen, Jorma Tarhio, Simo-pekka Lahtinen, Antti-pekka Tuovinen, Erkki Rautama, Veijo Meisalo, Anssi Porttikivi, Kari Pursiainen
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1997
• Subjects: Computing Reviews (1991) Categories; K.3.2; I.3.7; D.2.5 Key Words and Phrases; animation; visualization; algorithm design; teaching of programming; debugging i; Vesa; Ollikainen; sami
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.45.9277; http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/TR/A-1997/4/A-1997-4.ps.gz

Eliot is an interactive animation environment, for visualizing algorithms written in the C programming language. Eliot provides a library of visual data types which are ordinary data types with a set of pre-defined visualizations. The user picks one visualization for each data object he wants to animate. Based on these selections, Eliot constructs an animation where the objects as well as their operations are animated. Examples of the use of Eliot is given and its implementation is described. Eliot has applications in algorithm design, visual debugging, and learning to program. The preliminary results of using Eliot in the data structures laboratory have been promising. Computing Reviews (1991) Categories: K.3.2, I.3.7, D.2.5 Key Words and Phrases: animation, visualization, algorithm design, teaching of programming, debugging i Acknowledgements We thank Arne Dybdahl, Timo Lamminjoki, Kjell Lemstrom, Sami Lilja, Jari Litola, Janne Markkanen, Teemu Mottonen, Vesa Ollikainen, Seppo Pekk.