9455588 Ross The objective of this project is the design and development of an infrastructure around which formal laboratories in computer science can be implemented. The central component of the infrastructure is a software system called DYNALAB, for DYNAmic LABoratory. DYNALAB will run on Macintosh and IBM-compatible personal computers, as well as X-terminals connected to central computers. Students using DYNALAB have access--through a user interface oriented towards complete novices--to a comprehensive, easily modifiable, and extendible library of programs and experiments, including experiments in program structure (e.g., iteration, selection, recursion, execution-path determination, parameter passing mechanisms, functions, procedures, and so forth), black box determination of algorithms, time complexity, space complexity, program verification, and others. A sophisticated program animation component allows the execution of programs both forwards and in reverse, while displaying dynamically and in interactive fashion the pertinent aspects of program execution, such as the currently executing statement, values of variables, pointer references, and statement and memory cell counts (for time and space complexity experiments). Algorithm animation components also allow abstract graphical representations of algorithms to be presented on a screen in forward and reverse modes for algorithm and data structure studies. Finally, concept animations are included for the study of fundamental computer science concepts, such as compiling, multitasking, intractability, and so forth. The desirability of formal laboratories in the computer science curriculum is well documented, but few institutions ha e incorporated them for lack of laboratory resources. It is expected that DYNALAB will be widely adopted as a tool around which computer science laboratories can be designed.
