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Experimental Algorithmics pp 24–50Cite as

Visualization in Algorithm Engineering: Tools and Techniques

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2547))

Abstract

The process of implementing, debugging, testing, engineering and experimentally analyzing algorithmic codes is a complex and delicate task, fraught with many difficulties and pitfalls. In this context, traditional low-level textual debuggers or industrial-strength development environments can be of little help for algorithm engineers, who are mainly interested in high-level algorithmic ideas and not particularly in the language and platform-dependent details of actual implementations. Algorithm visualization environments provide tools for abstracting irrelevant program details and for conveying into still or animated images the high-level algorithmic behavior of a piece of software.

In this paper we address the role of visualization in algorithm engineering. We survey the main approaches and existing tools and we discuss difficulties and relevant examples where visualization systems have helped developers gain insight about algorithms, test implementation weaknesses, and tune suitable heuristics for improving the practical performances of algorithmic codes.

This work has been partially supported by the IST Programme of the EU under contract n. IST-1999-14.186 (ALCOM-FT), by tiR, the Italian National Research Council under contract n. 00.00346.CT26, and by DFG-Grant Na 303/1-2, Forschungsschwerpunkt “Effiziente Algorithmen für diskreteProbleme und ihre Anwendungen”.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy

    Camil Demetrescu

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Informazione, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy

    Irene Finocchi

  3. Dipartimento di Informatica, Sistemi e Produzione, Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy

    Giuseppe F. Italiano

  4. FB IV — Informatik, Universität Trier, Germany

    Stefan Näher

Authors
  1. Camil Demetrescu
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  2. Irene Finocchi
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  3. Giuseppe F. Italiano
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  4. Stefan Näher
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Rudolf Fleischer

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of New Mexico, Farris Engineering Bldg, 87131-1386, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Bernard Moret

  3. Department of Computer Science, University of Aarhus, Bld. 540, Ny Munkegade, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Erik Meineche Schmidt

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© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Demetrescu, C., Finocchi, I., Italiano, G.F., Näher, S. (2002). Visualization in Algorithm Engineering: Tools and Techniques. In: Fleischer, R., Moret, B., Schmidt, E.M. (eds) Experimental Algorithmics. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2547. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36383-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36383-1_2

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