GIT-GVU-92-10

A Methodology for Building Application-Specific Visualizations of Parallel Programs

John T. Stasko
Eileen Kraemer

Visualization of computer programs, particularly parallel programs, promises to help programmers better understand, develop, and debug their code, especially if the visualizations are relatively easy to create. We have developed a visualization methodology being used as a component in a comprehensive parallel program visualization system. The focus of the system is on application-specific user-tailored program views. An application-specific visualization of a parallel program presents the inherent application domain, semantics, and data being manipulated by the program in a manner natural to one's understanding of the program. In this paper we discuss why application-specific views are necessary for program debugging, and we list several requirements and challenges that a system for applicationspecific viewing should meet. The visualization methodology that we introduce includes primitives for designing smooth animation scenarios, and most importantly, for allowing designers to visualize or showcase the concurrency exhibited by parallel programs.

Application-specific visualization, parallel programs, program debugging, animation

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