As demonstrated in our earlier paper (Milne and Rowe, 2002), students learning object-oriented programming find topics related to the computer's handling of memory the most difficult to understand. Our results indicated that a visualization of a running object-oriented program, with particular emphasis on the display of how objects are related to each other in memory, would help students to learn these topics.#R##N##R##N#Here we describe OGRE (Object-oriented GRaphical Environment) – a program visualization tool that has been developed to specifically address these memory related issues by providing three-dimensional, interactive visualizations that aid higher-level understanding of a program's execution in memory. OGRE has been evaluated with positive results that show significant improvements in students' understanding of C++'s memory-related topics.
['Iain Milne', 'Glenn Rowe']
OGRE: Three-Dimensional Program Visualization for Novice Programmers