Recommendation

Not Recommended

Link

http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/people/mukundan/dsal/QSort.html

Delivery Method

Java Applet

License

Unavailable

Language

English

Author

R. Mukundan

Institution

University of Canterbury

Project

Java Applets Centre

RelationshipToProject

PartOfProject

Works

Yes

Description

This is a simplistic bar-swapping visualization with only continuous mode operation. The user cannot step through the visualization at his own pace or control the animation speed. The data set is randomly generated based on a user defined size. The visualization steps through the quicksort algorithm when the input size lies in the range 5-20. Beyond an input size of 20, the visualization operates in a "fast mode" (i.e. moves the bars around very quickly). It shows counts for swaps and compares.

Evaluation

Overall, this is a disappointing visualization. The lack of speed control or stepwise operation is a major flaw. The granularity of the animation is too coarse. The pivot pops up in the right position and the sub array is rearranged in a single step.There is no explanation for what the algorithm is doing in any given step, what bars are being compared, or how the partition function works. The visualization does not clearly illustrate the divide and conquer strategy. The color scheme is distracting and does not provide any visual cues that could aid learning. The execution history is not maintained, which makes it extremely hard to keep track of what is going on. The "fast mode" is not useful for learning the algorithm. It is extremely hard to grasp the quicksort algorithm from this visualization.

ActivityLevel

Animation Only; Random Data

GoodFor

Lecture Aid

Screenshots

Videos

References

HowToUse

First Visited

2006-11-07

Last Visited

2008-02-16

Last Updated

2006

Topic

QuickSort

Community

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