« Homework Syllabus for all sect | Main | Lecture #Syllabus for all sect »

March 31, 2006

Was all tSyllabus for all sect

As you are painfully aware, we spent some effort to give you the infrastructure needed to visualize some of the algorithms in 312. I think some things went well and others didn't, but I want to get your input since you lived through it.

If you have a minute, could you give me some answers to the following questions (even just a subset of the questions is ok). You can post replies on this post or send me email or send mail to the TAs if you want them to anonymize your responses.

1. We'll start off positive: what was the most useful thing about being able to visualize your algorithm's behavior?

2. Can you give an instance when being able to vizualize your algorithm's behavior helped you debug your algorihtm for either performance or correctness?

3. How hard was it to use the visualization infrastructure?

4. The big question is: was the ability to visualize yoru algorithm worth the effort it took to use the infrascture? Why or why not?

5. If you could change anything about algorithm visualization in 312, what would it be and why?

Thanks and good luck with the rest of the semester.

Posted by jones at March 31, 2006 02:45 PM

Comments

  1. We'll start off positive: what was the most useful thing about being able to visualize your algorithm's behavior?

    Very quick debugging: you knew exactly where (and even why at times) something went wrong.

  2. Can you give an instance when being able to vizualize your algorithm's behavior helped you debug your algorihtm for either performance or correctness?

    3. Yes. Just about every project. The articulation points was probably the strongest example of being able to use the visualizer to watch my algorithm work through the problem. It was invaluable.

  3. How hard was it to use the visualization infrastructure?

    For most of the projects, the visualization was too intermingled with the algorithm code. It would have saved me an hour or two per project if the visualization code that was given just required some predefined format for a data structure which it knew how to render, so that all I had to do was write code to put it into that structure for rendering.

  4. The big question is: was the ability to visualize yoru algorithm worth the effort it took to use the infrascture? Why or why not?

    Yes. If for nothing else than the satisfaction of seeing my algorithm do some work that looked useful.

  5. If you could change anything about algorithm visualization in 312, what would it be and why?

    I would bring together the best of boths worlds (pure algorithms and adding visualization) by distributing the class projects with the algorithm skeletal classes already in a totally separate class (or project!) from the rendering code. That way, the students get to think abstractly about the algorithm outside of the specific project application, but then get to leverage the class distribution to see how it works in an actual specific application.


Posted by: Andrew Arnott [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 2, 2006 07:28 PM

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)


Remember me?