Recommendation

Has Potential

Link

http://www.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de/courses/ss98/audii/applets/BST/BST-Example.html

Delivery Method

Java Applet

License

Language

English

Author

Doug Ierardi

Institution

Technische Universität Braunschweig

Project

StandAlone

RelationshipToProject

StandAlone

Works

Yes

Description

This AV is very interesting visualization for Binary Search Tree (BST). This BST visualization has physics; the balls hang from elastic cords. It only provides very simplistic features and focuses on basic operations on a BST through highly intuitive animation computed by physical simulations. It allows users to perform the operations of the BST such as Insert, delete, and locate. Instead of just stepping through the visualization, Users can directly choose one of the nodes on the BST by clicking it, and then run one of the basic operations (Insert, Delete, and Location) for that node. Also, the visualization is accompanied by short explanation at each step of the algorithm. Users can configure the default settings for some user-selectable styles of tree shapes, and animation properties. The data is only randomly generated, and user cannot experiment with his/her own data. And, This AV supports only continuous mode operation of the animation, and users cannot step through the animation at user’s own speed or with controls. The visualization automatically step forward the Binary search algorithm.

Evaluation

This AV looks fairly pleasant, and the fundamental operations of BST are visually presented. The lack of many extra features, such as animation control and user input data, is a major drawback of this AV. On the other hand, it provides a compact interface and fairly neat visualization which rarely distract a user who is learning a BST. I could see some benefits for this AV. In particular, its visualization is quietly intuitive, and a user is likely to raise his or her awareness from node's physical movements while learning about BST. This AV allows user to directly participate in constructing the visualization through interactivity. The user can select a node and execute available basic operations. This nice point-and-click functionality also makes the AV easy to use. However, without any advance knowledge of BST it seems that it is hard to learn the algorithm from this. It provides short textual information which is coupled with the visualization, but it would be insufficient for understanding how BST's basic operations work. If it included some document and explanation about operations of BST, this AV would have been more beneficial. A continuous operation doesn’t allow users to take a moment to examine what is happening and what the algorithm is doing at a current step. Also, since the execution history is not maintained, it is difficult for users to keep track of the state changes of BST algorithm. It would be much useful if a user was able to enter their own input data that allows them to directly explore how their input data can construct the binary search tree. If the user could execute basic operations, such as input, delete, and location with user’s input node, the user could engage and involve the BST visualization actively. This AV can be used either as part of a lecture by an instructor and along with instructor’s explanation. This AV would be useful for conveying some concepts of BST to students. Also, it can be provided as supplements for static presentations.

ActivityLevel

GoodFor

Lecture Aid; Teaching the Concept

Screenshots

Videos

References

HowToUse

First Visited

2006-08-01

Last Visited

2006-08-01

Last Updated

1996

Topic

BinarySearchTrees

Community

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