Animations for Introduction to Programming and Computing Science

This series of Limited Edition Flash animations also known as the "Train-track diagrams" have been produced as complementary material for an introductory course to computing science and programming in 2007. Each animation has its own controls for playback and moving backward and forward, and some of them respond to keypresses of the arrow keys.

The paradigm of the train tracks is another way to visualize flow diagrams which tries to incorporate a more dynamic view of the process of execution of code as the CPU (the locomotive) passes through the diagram. The houses are meant to illustrate the view that software is constructed at different levels of complexity, some parts might be simple, while other extremely complex, and each is a piece of work that requires design and effort.

In addition to the train track diagrams, an animation illustrating the process of calling a static method using pass-by-value is illustrated. This animation was inspired in the biological processes that occur at the cellular level.



Oscar Meruvia

Train Track Diagrams

and Other

animations

 

Click on images to open the animations

the animations can only be seen if the flash player is installed

 

do-while() loop
- animation -

try-catch blocks

for handling exceptions

- slides -

 

while() loop

- animation -

for() loop

with break and continue

- slides -

invocation of a method and pass by value

break and continue

- animation -

Static versus non-static

for methods and variables

- animation -

while() loop

with break and continue

- slides -

do-while() loop with

break and continue

- slides -