Recommendation

Has Potential

Link

http://www.brian-borowski.com/Software/Sorting

Delivery Method

Java Applet

License

Unlicensed Sourcecode

Language

English

Author

Brian S. Borowski

Institution

Seton Hall University

Project

Borowski's Collection

RelationshipToProject

PartOfCollection

Works

Yes

Description

This tool allows users to enter their own data set and it is a good start to understand how an algorithm works by examining different data sets for a user. The user interface is not intuitive, but not hard to figure out after some trials. It provides multiple views as pseudo code and the visualization. It also includes speed control, and AlgorithmSimulation instrumentation (comparisons, exchanges), but it lacks stepwise operation.

Evaluation

This visualization provides multiple views as pseudo code and the visualization. It visualizes partitions by putting i and j values of the pseudo code on the correct places of the array. This is an important feature since it gives users to have an idea about which partition is being worked on, how the algorithm handles that part and how the algorithm iterates on the data set. It also provides information about how the current pivot value is selected, which is also important in understanding how the algorithm will iterate. It can be a good start for a user who wants to understand how the algorithm is represented on a pseudo code and how each line in the pseudo code works on a given array. Despite its useful features such as multiple views, custom input data sets and performance information indicated by number of comparisons and exchanges; the tool misses some key functionalities like providing the ability to go back during run time and stepwise movement ability. Being able to see the execution history, and being able to run the visualization backwards are also important key features which might be used to explain how the algorithm divides arrays into partitions and how it combines them. These features should be included in a quick sorting algorithm visualization.

ActivityLevel

GoodFor

Teaching the Concept; Debugging; Exploring the Concept

Screenshots

Videos

References

HowToUse

First Visited

2006-11-07

Last Visited

2008-02-11

Last Updated

2000

Topic

QuickSort

Community

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