Visualizing Concurrent Computations

This paper describes the underlying model for a visualization environment concerned with exploring, monitoring, and presenting concurrent computations. The model is declarative in the sense that visualization is treated as the composition of several mappings which, as a whole, map computational states into full-color images of a 3-D geometric world. The mappings defining the visualizations are specified using a rule-based notation. The visualization methodology is proof-based, i.e., it captures abstract formal properties of programs (e.g. safety and progress) rather than operational details. An algorithm for termination detection in diffusing computations is used to illustrate the specification method and to demonstrate its conceptual elegance and flexibility