OO Metaphors Home Page

Metaphor-Based Animations of OO Programs

This page contains six animations that use OO metaphors to visualize OO concepts. For each animation, the program code as well as an English and Finnish version of the animation are given. For presentation purposes, some of the animations restrict user input, e.g, so that only a small number of objects can be created even though the program code does not have such limitations. The programs use a simple console input class Input that can be found here.

We suggest that each animation is used with students as follows:

• The teacher explains what the program does from a user's perspective: its input and output.
• The teacher runs the program (in the standard Java environment; not in the animator) with selected input.
• The students run the program (in the standard Java environment; not in the animator) with their own inputs.
• The program code is given to the students as paper hand-outs.
• The teacher introduces the overall structure of the program to the students: classes, methods, and the actions of the main method.
• The teacher animates the program with selected input.
• The students animate the program with input given by the teacher.
• The students animate the program with their own input.

During animation:

• pop-up boxes must be acknowledged with a mouse click or with hitting Enter or space,
• if an animation asks for user input, the input field above the input plate must first be activated with a mouse click.

The Animations