Learning Information Visualization Algorithms using Tulu

Abstract

Information visualization libraries are toolkits that frequently require users to have a deep understanding of their internal structure and design. Their features sometimes include a wide range of visualization methods from simple low-level drawings all the way to high-level sophisticated visualizations. This complexity is an obstacle for researchers, students, and developers who need to design and implement appealing visual representations that can be incorporated into their products efficiently and easily. This paper presents Tulu, a library that runs on top of Diököl, a programming environment created with Lua and OpenVG. Tulu is aimed to serve as an alternative for creating visualization systems. This library offers several advantages over traditional libraries including its extensibility, portability, and size. With respect to extensibility, it allows the adaptation and extension of the logic of the visualization techniques implemented in its catalog. Concerning portability, it runs on several operating systems. Finally, in regard to size, Diököl's space requirement is less than 1 MB, which makes it fitting for small single-board computers, such as the Raspberry Pi device, aimed at teaching basic computer science concepts.