Sajaniemi J., Byckling P., Gerdt P. (2006)
Metaphor-Based Animation of OO Programs
(Extended Poster abstract). Proceedings SOFTVIS 06 ACM Symposium on Software Visualization, Brighton, U.K., September 2006, Association for Computing Machinery, 173-174.
Abstract: Program visualization and animation have traditionally been done at the level of programming language implementation, or by using some formal graphical notation, e.g., UML; both of which are unfamiliar to novices. We present a metaphor approach to animating object-oriented programming with the goal to provide novices with visually rich visualizations that can develop and consolidate a valid mental model of object-orientation. For this purpose, we introduce new metaphors for such concepts as object, object instantiation, method invocation, parameter passing, and object reference. These metaphors are used in a system that provides the animation of a few, carefully selected OO programs for educational use.
Last updated: September 12, 2006