Recommendation

Has Potential

Link

http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/dsrkg/cs210/applets/sp_dijkstra/Dijkstra.html

Delivery Method

Java Applet

License

Unavailable

Language

English

Author

R. K. Ghosh

Institution

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Project

Ghosh's Collection

RelationshipToProject

PartOfCollection

Works

Yes

Description

Step-by-step guided visualization tool. This allows user to draw their own graph or use the default graph. Then user can select the search algorithm to visualize and the start vertex and then step through it.

Evaluation

The tool introduces a good amount of interaction with the user by allowing him to draw his own graph along with weights to the edges, or use a default graph, also directing him continuously through messages displayed in the message window. However the main issue is the design of the user interface. The choice of colors is too gaudy and there seems to be too many buttons and instructions before the user can start running the actual visualization. The user has no control over the pace of the animation that takes place during each step, and it tend to be too slow. However, during the animation the informative messages describing the step are displayed for too brief a period, with the user not controlling the pacing. Therefore the user doesn’t get enough time to assimilate what has happened. It would have helped to have a history window instead of a message window. However, use of colors to represent the various states of the nodes is a plus and the explanations in the message window are sufficiently detailed. This tool is almost there but falls short because of poor user interface design.

ActivityLevel

Step Control; Animation; User Data; Canned Data

GoodFor

Lecture Aid; Self Study

Screenshots

Videos

References

HowToUse

First Visited

2006-11-06

Last Visited

2008-07-15

Last Updated

2001-08-12

Topic

SingleSourceShortestPaths

Community

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