Towards General-Purpose Program Animation

Abstract

現今有許多軟體視覺化的研究，除了靜態的呈現還有動畫的表現方式。但其中絕大部分的動畫設計都只能呈現某些特定的演算法或資料結構。雖然仍有少部分的研究是朝向可以呈現所有的程式，但都需要使用者投入額外的努力才可以產生動畫。因此，我們的研究目標是可以為任何的Java程式的執行片段產生一段動畫但又不需要使用者做額外的工作。 在本篇論文中，我們設計了一個名為「YaJDB」的工具。這個工具主要有兩個目的，一個是提供DIVINE所需的除錯資訊；另一個即是提供動畫產生器（animation metaphor）必要的支援以為達成我們的目標。YaJDB是延伸JDB而來。在未來，我們會繼續往這目標前進，完成動畫產生器(animation metaphor)及映對引擎(mapping engine)。There are many software visualization researches nowadays. Software visualization is an aid for program understanding, debugging and teaching. Although there are many researches aiming for algorithm animation, most of them are designed for specific algorithms and data structures. Some researches aim for general-purpose program animation but animation generation typically requires extra work from the users. In this thesis, we develop a tool, called YaJDB, to provide debugging information for DIVINE and the necessary support for animation metaphor to make it possible to animate general-purpose programs. YaJDB is a debugger modified from JDB. YaJDB is used to catch the information during program execution. Besides, we develop a simple animation metaphor to show that our approach works. In the future, we will develop more realistic animation metaphors and needed mapping engine.