Visual editing of animated algorithms: The leonardo web builder

Leonardo Web is a collection of tools to animate algorithms. Animations can be generated with a visual editor or directly as a trace of an algorithm's execution. They can be visualized via a small Java player, available as an applet or as a standalone application; the player supports bidirectional continuous and step-by-step execution. Furthermore the system allows to export the animations in several formats, including Macromedia Flash, Microsoft PowerPoint and animated GIF. In this paper we discuss the design issues of one of the component of the visual editor of Leonardo Web, called the Builder, that can be used to design an animation from scratch as well as to refine batch-generated ones. Copyright 2006 ACM