Algorithm animation for teaching

Abstract

We give an overview of rules and techniques to create a good algorithm animation, with emphasis on animations that would be used when teaching algorithms. In this context, we propose that animations should in particular emphasize the visualization of correctness invariants and the complexity of the algorithms. This implies that writing a good animation must be more than just showing the graphically enhanced runtime debugging provided by most common animation systems; instead, each animation must be individually designed and programmed.