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Educational Program Visualizations Using Synthetized Execution Information

Authors Rodrigo Mourato , André L. Santos

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Author Details

Rodrigo Mourato
  • Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Portugal
André L. Santos
  • Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), ISTAR-IUL, Portugal

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Rodrigo Mourato and André L. Santos. Educational Program Visualizations Using Synthetized Execution Information. In 5th International Computer Programming Education Conference (ICPEC 2024). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 122, pp. 10:1-10:8, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024) https://doi.org/10.4230/OASIcs.ICPEC.2024.10

Abstract

Visualization is a powerful tool for explaining, understanding, and debugging computations. Over the years, several visualization tools have been developed for educational purposes. Most of these tools feed visualization engines using the raw program state data available provided by the debugger API. While this suffices in certain contexts, there are situations where additional relevant information could aid in building up more comprehensive visualizations. This paper presents two novel visualizations of Paddle, an educational programming environment based on synthesized program execution information. We generate execution traces and relevant program states through static and dynamic analysis of the execution data. The synthesized information captures program behaviors that facilitate the creation of comprehensive and rich visualizations involving arrays that depict position reads, writes, moves, and swaps.

Subject Classification

ACM Subject Classification
  • Social and professional topics → Computer science education
  • Applied computing → Computer-assisted instruction
Keywords
  • Introductory programming
  • visualization
  • comprehension

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References

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