Abstract

The general term program visualization refers to graphical views or illustrations of the entities and characteristics of computer programs. This term along with many others including data structure display, program animation, algorithm animation, etc., have been used inconsistently in the literature, which has led to confusion in describing systems providing these capabilities. In this paper we present a scaled characterization of program visualization terms along aspect, abstractness, animation, and automation dimensions. Rather than placing existing systems into hard-and-fast categories, we focus on unique and differentiating aspects across all systems. Keywords: program visualization, algorithm animation, software understanding 1 Introduction A visualization tool provides graphical views of the entities and characteristics of a computer system or program. The purpose of such a visualization tool is stated nicely by Myers, et. al.: "Human information processing is clearly optimized...

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