|
| Presentation |
|---|
Developing Gato and CATBox with Python: Teaching graph algorithms through visualization and experimentation
Teaching algorithms, especially graph algorithms, is one of the few
very natural applications of multi-media in mathematics. The objects
considered are of a highly dynamic nature and require an adequate
dynamic visualization.
CATBox, the combinatorial algorithm toolbox, is an interactive course
combining a textbook with the visualization software Gato, the graph
animation toolbox. For Gato's design the following simple rules were
used to address issues of clearness of presentation, consistency,
level of interactivity and software engineering.
1) Use a real programming language instead of pseudo-code
By choosing Python for presenting algorithms we bought consistency of
the presentation at the expense of using a syntactically slightly more
complex language compared to traditional pseudo-code.
2) Visualization based on rules
Interesting events for the visualization always correspond to changes
to data-structures used in the algorithm. Therefore, those changes to
the data-structures should be tightly coupled to the corresponding
visualization commands. For reasons of consistency and maintainability
we added these 'rules' as sub-classes of abstract classes implementing
data-structures typically used in graph algorithms. This occasionally
provided surprising insights even for very simple algorithms.
3) Choice of the right software framework
Over a number of years various predecessors to CATBox, all under the
same name but with slightly different feature sets, have been
implemented in a number of ways. For the current incarnation we chose
Python/Tkinter, due to the rules above and wide cross-platform
availability.
4) Extreme Programming
The applicable aspects of the 'Extreme Programming' methodology were
used for developing Gato.
We will also address software engineering issues arising in an
academic setting with special emphasis on software quality control and
cross-platform requirements. Additionally, positive experiences
resulting from licensing Gato freely under the LGPL (Library Gnu
Public License) will be discussed.
Links:
CATBox http://www.zpr.uni-koeln.de/~catbox
Gato http://www.zpr.uni-koeln.de/~gato
|
| Article |
|---|
Developing Gato and CATBox with Python: Teaching graph algorithms through visualization and experimentation
Teaching algorithms, especially graph algorithms, is one of the
natural applications of multi-media in mathematics. The objects
considered are of a highly dynamic nature and require an adequate
dynamic visualization.
CATBox, the combinatorial algorithm tool-box, is an interactive course
combining a textbook with the visualization software Gato, the graph
animation tool-box. For the design of Gato, the following simple rules
were used to address issues of clearness of presentation, consistency,
level of interactivity and software engineering.
\begin{itemize}
\item Use a real programming language instead of pseudo-code:
By choosing Python for presenting algorithms we bought consistency
of the presentation at the expense of using a syntactically slightly
more complex language compared to traditional pseudo-code.
\item Visualization based on rules: {\em Interesting
events}~\cite{brown98} in the visualization always correspond to
changes to data-structures used in the algorithm. Therefore, those
changes to data-structures should be tightly coupled to the
corresponding visualization commands. For reasons of consistency and
maintainability we added these `rules' as sub-classes of abstract
classes implementing data-structures. This occasionally provided
surprising insights even in the case of very simple algorithms.
\item Choose the appropriate software framework:
Over a number of years various predecessors to CATBox, all under the
same name but with slightly different feature sets, have been
implemented in a number of ways. For the current implementation we
chose Python/Tkinter, due to the rules mentioned above and
its availability on a large number of computer-platforms.
\item Good Software Engineering:
The applicable aspects of the `Extreme Programming' methodology were
used for developing Gato.
\end{itemize}
The application of these rules yields a software which allows learners
to experiment with both problem instances and the algorithms themselves.
We will also address software engineering issues arising in an
academic setting with special emphasis on software quality control and
cross-platform requirements. Additionally, positive experiences
resulting from licensing Gato freely under the LGPL (Library GNU
Public License) will be discussed.
|
|