Tools for visualizing text compression algorithms
Sami Khuri, Hsiu-Chin Hsu · 2000
In this paper, we describe visualization tools that were developed to assist students in learning data compression algorithms. The two packages, LZ and AHuffman, animate the three LZ-based algorithms, LZ77, LZ78, LZW, and the adaptive Huffman algorithm. These packages can be used in CS1/CS2, data structures and algorithms courses, or in data compression electives. We also highlight the merits of the packages and the benefits to the students derived from our visualization tools. 1. INTRODUCTION All over the world, people are developing interactive educational tools. These tools are being used in classroom demonstrations, hands-on laboratories, self-directed work outside of class, and distance learning [5]. The World Wide Web has numerous repositories of animation and visualization packages of traditional algorithms encountered in CS1, CS2, and data structures and algorithms courses. These include sorting, searches, and traversals of trees and graph algorithms. Recently, many computer ...