Tools for Web-based sorting animation

Abstract

There is a long and rich tradition of sort algorithm animations that have been used effectively in instruction. This paper describes a new tool that combines the best of this tradition with the advantages of being in the form of an applet for use on the World Wide Web and of animating the code of the algorithm in concert with the animation of the data. In addition, this tool facilitates student-designed animations that are useful for the debugging of student-written sort algorithms. Recursive sort algorithms are made more accessible through the use of a special feature of the tool that animates the recursion.