ALMA versus DDD

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor(a) principal: Cruz, Daniela
Data de Publicação: 2008
Outros Autores: Henriques, Pedro Rangel, Pereira, Maria João
Tipo de documento: Artigo
Idioma: eng
Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10198/959
Resumo: To be a debugger is a good thing! Since the very beginning of the programming activity, debuggers are the most important and widely used tools after editors and compilers; we completely recognize their importance for software development and testing. Debuggers work at machine level, after the compilation of the source program; they deal with assembly, or binary-code, and are mainly data structure inspectors. Alma is a program animator based on its abstract representation. The main idea is to show the algorithm being implemented by the program, independently from the language used to implement it. To say that ALMA is a debugger, with no value added, is not true! ALMA is a source code inspector but it deals with programming concepts instead of machine code. This makes possible to understand the source program at a conceptual level, and not only to fix run time errors. In this paper we compare our visualizer/animator system, ALMA, with one of the most well-known and used debuggers, the graphical version of GDB, the DDD program. The aim of the paper is twofold: the immediate objective is to prove that ALMA provides new features that are not usually offered by debuggers; the main contribution is to recall the concepts of debugger and animator, and clarify the role of both tools in the field of program understanding, or program comprehension.
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spelling ALMA versus DDDProgram comprehensionProgram animationDebuggerTo be a debugger is a good thing! Since the very beginning of the programming activity, debuggers are the most important and widely used tools after editors and compilers; we completely recognize their importance for software development and testing. Debuggers work at machine level, after the compilation of the source program; they deal with assembly, or binary-code, and are mainly data structure inspectors. Alma is a program animator based on its abstract representation. The main idea is to show the algorithm being implemented by the program, independently from the language used to implement it. To say that ALMA is a debugger, with no value added, is not true! ALMA is a source code inspector but it deals with programming concepts instead of machine code. This makes possible to understand the source program at a conceptual level, and not only to fix run time errors. In this paper we compare our visualizer/animator system, ALMA, with one of the most well-known and used debuggers, the graphical version of GDB, the DDD program. The aim of the paper is twofold: the immediate objective is to prove that ALMA provides new features that are not usually offered by debuggers; the main contribution is to recall the concepts of debugger and animator, and clarify the role of both tools in the field of program understanding, or program comprehension.FCTComSIS ConsortiumBiblioteca Digital do IPBCruz, DanielaHenriques, Pedro RangelPereira, Maria João2008-12-31T11:40:19Z20082008-01-01T00:00:00Zinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10198/959engengCruz, Daniela; Henriques, Pedro; Pereira, Maria João (2008). ALMA versus DDD. Computer Science an Information Systems Journal. ISSN 1820-0214. 5:2 p. 119-136 e Conference on Compilers, Related Technologies and Applications. Bragança1820-0214ComSIS - Computer Science an Information Systems Journalinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessreponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAP2023-11-21T10:04:11Zoai:bibliotecadigital.ipb.pt:10198/959Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-19T22:54:35.269747Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv ALMA versus DDD
title ALMA versus DDD
spellingShingle ALMA versus DDD
Cruz, Daniela
Program comprehension
Program animation
Debugger
title_short ALMA versus DDD
title_full ALMA versus DDD
title_fullStr ALMA versus DDD
title_full_unstemmed ALMA versus DDD
title_sort ALMA versus DDD
author Cruz, Daniela
author_facet Cruz, Daniela
Henriques, Pedro Rangel
Pereira, Maria João
author_role author
author2 Henriques, Pedro Rangel
Pereira, Maria João
author2_role author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Biblioteca Digital do IPB
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv Cruz, Daniela
Henriques, Pedro Rangel
Pereira, Maria João
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv Program comprehension
Program animation
Debugger
topic Program comprehension
Program animation
Debugger
description To be a debugger is a good thing! Since the very beginning of the programming activity, debuggers are the most important and widely used tools after editors and compilers; we completely recognize their importance for software development and testing. Debuggers work at machine level, after the compilation of the source program; they deal with assembly, or binary-code, and are mainly data structure inspectors. Alma is a program animator based on its abstract representation. The main idea is to show the algorithm being implemented by the program, independently from the language used to implement it. To say that ALMA is a debugger, with no value added, is not true! ALMA is a source code inspector but it deals with programming concepts instead of machine code. This makes possible to understand the source program at a conceptual level, and not only to fix run time errors. In this paper we compare our visualizer/animator system, ALMA, with one of the most well-known and used debuggers, the graphical version of GDB, the DDD program. The aim of the paper is twofold: the immediate objective is to prove that ALMA provides new features that are not usually offered by debuggers; the main contribution is to recall the concepts of debugger and animator, and clarify the role of both tools in the field of program understanding, or program comprehension.
publishDate 2008
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2008-12-31T11:40:19Z
2008
2008-01-01T00:00:00Z
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
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status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10198/959
url http://hdl.handle.net/10198/959
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv eng
eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Cruz, Daniela; Henriques, Pedro; Pereira, Maria João (2008). ALMA versus DDD. Computer Science an Information Systems Journal. ISSN 1820-0214. 5:2 p. 119-136 e Conference on Compilers, Related Technologies and Applications. Bragança
1820-0214
ComSIS - Computer Science an Information Systems Journal
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
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dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv ComSIS Consortium
publisher.none.fl_str_mv ComSIS Consortium
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
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instacron:RCAAP
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instacron_str RCAAP
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