An approach for facilitating the development of visual simulations of parallel and distributed algorithms

Abstract

Parallel and distributed algorithms constitute an advanced topic in theoretical and practical computer science that has gained much interest recently. It is generally known that studying and teaching the fundamentals of parallel algorithm's concepts present a constant challenge to both learners and educators. Due to the additional abstract concepts applied in the implementation of parallel algorithms, designing visualisations of parallel algorithms is far more arduous than visualising sequential algorithms (single process). At the same time, the pedagogical gain of parallel algorithm visualisations is much higher than that of sequential ones. In this paper we introduce a new approach to minimising the effort needed to create effective visual simulations of parallel and distributed algorithms.