Faculty Advisor
Dr. Chris North

Grant
$10,160- 1/1/01 (1 year)

Project/Description

Automated Data Structure Visualization

Our Data Structure Visualization (DSV) software tool will enable programmers to understand and debug implemented data structures by visually depicted the dynamic structures automatically at run time. DSV acts as a visual user interface to the Microsoft Visual C++ debugger. Our goal is to require as little additional effort as possible by users to enable visualization of their data structures. Major challenges include usability, visual layout of data structures according to templates, visually compressing large data structures into a single overview, visually indicating newly allocated and de-allocated memory, extracting information from the debugger and source code, tracking data structure changes at run-time, and high-speed performance with very large data structures. DSV will provide value for students, teachers, and professional programmers.