Focusing in algorithm explanation

Abstract

Algorithm animation attempts to explain an algorithm by visualizing interesting events of the execution of the implemented algorithm on some sample input. Algorithm explanation describes the algorithm on some adequate level of abstraction, states invariants, explains how important steps of the algorithm preserve the invariants, and abstracts from the input data up to the relevant properties. It uses a small focus onto the execution state. This paper is concerned with the explanation of algorithms on linked data structures. The thesis of the paper is that shape analysis of such algorithms produces abstract representations of such data structures, which focus on the active parts, i.e., the parts of the data structures, which the algorithm can access during it's next steps. The paper presents a concept of visually executing an algorithm on these abstract representations of data.