DOCSLIB.ORG

Examining Support of Narrative Scripting for Serious Games

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Examining Support of Narrative Scripting for Serious Games EXAMINING SUPPORT OF NARRATIVE SCRIPTING FOR SERIOUS GAMES by Marty Kauhanen A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF COMPUTER SCIENCE School of Computer Science at CARLETON UNIVERSITY Ottawa, Ontario May, 2009 © Copyright by Marty Kauhanen, 2009 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-52048-2 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-52048-2 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Nntemet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. i*I Canada Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents List of Tables vii List of Figures viii Abstract xi Acknowledgements xii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Why Study Games? 2 1.1.1 Gamers are everywhere 2 1.1.2 Games are big business 3 1.1.3 Games axe not just for entertainment 4 1.2 What is Scripting? 4 1.3 The Plan 5 1.4 Contributions 5 1.5 Outline 7 Chapter 2 Background 8 2.1 Serious Games 8 2.2 Serious Game Development 11 2.3 Why Focus on the Narrative or Story? 13 2.4 Interactive Narratives 14 2.5 Ludic vs. Narrative Perspective in Games 15 2.6 Story Structure in Games 16 2.6.1 Gating the Story 16 2.6.2 Branching Story Structure 16 2.6.3 Branching Story Structure. Recombining Branches 16 2.6.4 Other branching structures 17 ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2.6.5 Hypertext 17 2.6.6 Opinions in Literature 17 2.6.7 Autonomous Characters 17 2.7 Domain Specific Language 18 2.7.1 Definition 18 2.7.2 Advantages 19 2.7.3 Example: LabVIEW 19 2.8 Petri Nets and the PN-model 20 2.8.1 Petri Nets 21 2.8.2 PN-model 21 2.8.3 Do we need Petri Nets and PN-Models? 22 2.9 Conclusion 22 Chapter 3 Patterns for Game Scripting Tools 24 3.1 Introduction 24 3.2 Basis of a Pattern Language 25 3.3 Alexandrian Pattern Form 27 3.4 The Patterns 27 3.4.1 STORYTELLER'S CORNER 27 3.4.2 EVERYONE HAS A STORY TO TELL 28 3.4.3 TELL THE STORY IN YOUR OWN WORDS 30 3.4.4 BIND THE STORY 34 3.4.5 IT GOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS 35 3.4.6 ALL STORYTELLING IS RETELLING 38 3.4.7 TRADING STORIES 40 3.4.8 READ IT BACK TO ME 41 3.5 Conclusion 42 Chapter 4 Assessment of a Commercial Tool 44 4.1 Introduction 44 4.2 Research Goal 44 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4.3 The Commercial Game and Tool 45 4.4 Heuristic Evaluation 46 4.5 Cognitive Dimensions of Notations 48 4.5.1 Introduction 48 4.5.2 The Dimensions 49 4.5.3 The Activities 50 4.5.4 Activity Profiles and Workarounds 51 4.6 Study Setup 54 4.6.1 Select Task List 54 4.6.2 Select the Dimensions 55 4.7 Equipment 57 4.8 Procedure 57 4.9 The Neverwinter Nights Model 59 4.10 Neverwinter Nights Aurora Toolset 60 4.11 Results 61 4.11.1 PREMATURE COMMITEMENT 61 4.11.2 VISIBILITY 63 4.11.3 VISCOSITY 64 4.11.4 CONSISTENCY 66 4.11.5 PROGRESSIVE EVALUATION 67 4.11.6 HIDDEN DEPENDENCIES 74 4.11.7 CLOSENESS OF MAPPING 75 4.12 Analysis 75 4.13 Interpretation 78 4.14 Related Work 81 4.15 Future Work 82 4.16 Conclusion 82 Chapter 5 Observing Professional Game Developers 84 5.1 Introduction 84 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5.2 Research Goal 85 5.3 Contextual Design 85 5.3.1 Introduction 85 5.4 Equipment 86 5.5 Subjects and Workplace 87 5.6 Results 88 5.6.1 Pre-Interview Sessions 88 5.6.2 Contextual Interviews 88 5.6.3 Interpretation Notes 88 5.6.4 GameCompany's Game Architecture 91 5.7 Analysis: the Affinity Diagram 92 5.8 Interpretation: Wall Walk and Visioning 95 5.8.1 Key concerns 96 5.8.2 Ideas for internal software tools 96 5.9 Conclusion 97 Chapter 6 One Year Later at GameCompany 98 6.1 Introduction 98 6.2 Background 99 6.3 Goals of GameCompany 100 6.4 GameCompany's XML Code 102 6.5 The Conversion Tools 103 6.5.1 Content Creator 103 6.5.2 ContentConverter 104 6.6 Usability Study of the Content Creator 105 6.6.1 Method 105 6.6.2 Subject and Workplace 105 6.6.3 Procedure 105 6.6.4 Equipment Ill 6.6.5 Results Ill v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6.6.6 Observations and Analysis 112 6.6.7 Interpretation Notes 116 6.7 Discussion 118 6.7.1 Usability of Conversion Tools 118 6.7.2 A Cognitive Ethnographical Study 120 6.8 Conclusion 122 Chapter 7 Conclusions 124 7.1 Summary 124 7.2 A model for supporting serious game scripting 125 7.2.1 PROVIDE AUTHORS WITH AN INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE TOOL 126 7.2.2 SUPPORT STORY BUILDING AND VISUALIZATION IN THE TOOL126 7.2.3 SUPPORT FREQUENT UPDATES AND TESTING 127 7.2.4 SUPPORT AUTOMATIC INTEGRATION OF THE NARRATIVE . 128 7.3 Our Contributions 128 7.4 Future Work 129 7.4.1 Map to an Underlying Model 130 7.4.2 Design Story-Specific Conversion Tools 130 Appendix A Observations from Cognitive Dimensions Analysis of the Aurora Toolset 132 Appendix B Full Affinity Diagram 135 Bibliography 146 vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. List of Tables Table 4.1 A Sample of Observational Notes by Dimension 58 4.2 Coded Observational Notes 78 6.1 Key concerns mapped to observations 1 year later at GameCom­ pany 122 A.l Uncoded Observational Notes 134 vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. List of Figures Figure 2.1 Screenshot of America's Army website, showing a mix of game- related and real-life content 9 Figure 2.2 A screenshot of September 12, an example of a persuasive, se­ rious game 10 Figure 2.3 The title screen of the serious game, Darfur is Dying 11 Figure 2.4 Screenshot of game-play in the serious game, Food Force ... 12 Figure 2.5 Example of Deikto representation of a mugger threatening the user with a knife (right) and the user's possible actions (left) [23, 85] 19 Figure 2.6 Screenshot of LabVIEW from online tutorial [68] 20 Figure 2.7 Figure 1 from Hierarchical Petri Nets for Story Plots Featuring Virtual Humans [7] 21 Figure 3.1 The basis of a pattern language for design of end-user develop­ ment environments for scripting interactive narratives 25 Figure 3.2 A code snippet from the Inform 6 version of Cloak of Darkness, describing the behaviour of the velvet cloak object. This code is from the middle of the file 31 Figure 3.3 A second code snippet from Cloak of Darkness, written in In­ form 6. This snippet is located near the end of the file and is the code that instantiates the game-play. 32 Figure 3.4 A screenshot of Inform 7 showing the natural language 'source code' of the Cloak of Darkness [37] 33 Figure 3.5 Rule Example in Inform7 from Cloak of Darkness [37] .... 33 Figure 3.6 Rule Example in Inform6 from Cloak of Darkness [37] .... 33 Figure 3.7 The top portion of the first page of a pen-and-paper D&D Char­ acter Sheet [102] 37 Figure 3.8 Creature Properties screen from the Aurora Toolset 38 viii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Designing Multivocal Museums Designing Multivocal Museums Intercultural Practices at Museo Designing Diocesano, Milano
    Books designing multivocal museums designing multivocal museums intercultural practices at museo designing diocesano, milano This book presents the process of designing multivocal of a museum experience, included in MeLa Project’s research, and accomplished at the Museo Diocesano di Milano. museums The museum experience put together many relevant issues for the renewal of museum Intercultural Practices at Museo interpretation, using a design discourse to Diocesano, Milano explore the combination of technological tools and multi-vocal content to enable diverse dynamics of cultural representation. edited by The volume maps the entire process of a Rita Capurro and Eleonora Lupo cross-disciplinary research to develop possible scenarios that can be translated not only as test verification of the theoretical investigations but Lupo edited by Rita Capurro and Eleonora also into the production of various experimental exhibition designs. With contributions by: Rita Capurro, Sara Chie- sa, Luca Greci, Eleonora Lupo, Ece Özdil, Davide Spallazzo, Raffaella Trocchianesi. editors Rita Capurro, Art Historian, Ph.D., Inde- pendent Researcher Eleonora Lupo, Ph.D., Associate Professor at School of Design, Politecnico di Milano. cover image — Test with users at Museo Diocesano, Milan, Raffaella Trocchianesi, 2014. Books MeLa–European Museums in an age of migrations 12 isbn978-88-941674-0-5 Designing Multivocal Museums: Intercultural Practices at Museo Diocesano, Milano Books Designing Multivocal Museums Intercultural Practices at Museo Diocesano, Milano edited by Rita Capurro and Eleonora Lupo Books 4 — designing multivocal museums: intercultural practices at museo diocesano, milano mela book 12 – designing multivocal museums intercultural practices at museo diocesano, milano. Published by Politecnico di Milano, Department of Design © January 2016, The Authors This work is provided on line as open access document under the terms of Creative Com- mons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.
    [Show full text]
  • Advanced-Game-Design-With-Html5
    www.allitebooks.com For your convenience Apress has placed some of the front matter material after the index. Please use the Bookmarks and Contents at a Glance links to access them. www.allitebooks.com Contents at a Glance About the Author .....................................................................................................xv About the Technical Reviewers .............................................................................xvii Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................xix Introduction ............................................................................................................xxi ■ Chapter 1: Level Up! .............................................................................................. 1 ■ Chapter 2: The Canvas Drawing API .................................................................... 59 ■ Chapter 3: Working with Game Assets ................................................................ 93 ■ Chapter 4: Making Sprites and a Scene Graph .................................................. 111 ■ Chapter 5: Making Things Move ........................................................................ 165 ■ Chapter 6: Interactivity ...................................................................................... 189 ■ Chapter 7: Collision Detection ........................................................................... 239 ■ Chapter 8: Juice It Up .......................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Openbsd Gaming Resource
    OPENBSD GAMING RESOURCE A continually updated resource for playing video games on OpenBSD. Mr. Satterly Updated August 7, 2021 P11U17A3B8 III Title: OpenBSD Gaming Resource Author: Mr. Satterly Publisher: Mr. Satterly Date: Updated August 7, 2021 Copyright: Creative Commons Zero 1.0 Universal Email: [email protected] Website: https://MrSatterly.com/ Contents 1 Introduction1 2 Ways to play the games2 2.1 Base system........................ 2 2.2 Ports/Editors........................ 3 2.3 Ports/Emulators...................... 3 Arcade emulation..................... 4 Computer emulation................... 4 Game console emulation................. 4 Operating system emulation .............. 7 2.4 Ports/Games........................ 8 Game engines....................... 8 Interactive fiction..................... 9 2.5 Ports/Math......................... 10 2.6 Ports/Net.......................... 10 2.7 Ports/Shells ........................ 12 2.8 Ports/WWW ........................ 12 3 Notable games 14 3.1 Free games ........................ 14 A-I.............................. 14 J-R.............................. 22 S-Z.............................. 26 3.2 Non-free games...................... 31 4 Getting the games 33 4.1 Games............................ 33 5 Former ways to play games 37 6 What next? 38 Appendices 39 A Clones, models, and variants 39 Index 51 IV 1 Introduction I use this document to help organize my thoughts, files, and links on how to play games on OpenBSD. It helps me to remember what I have gone through while finding new games. The biggest reason to read or at least skim this document is because how can you search for something you do not know exists? I will show you ways to play games, what free and non-free games are available, and give links to help you get started on downloading them.
    [Show full text]
  • Foundations for Music-Based Games
    Die approbierte Originalversion dieser Diplom-/Masterarbeit ist an der Hauptbibliothek der Technischen Universität Wien aufgestellt (http://www.ub.tuwien.ac.at). The approved original version of this diploma or master thesis is available at the main library of the Vienna University of Technology (http://www.ub.tuwien.ac.at/englweb/). MASTERARBEIT Foundations for Music-Based Games Ausgeführt am Institut für Gestaltungs- und Wirkungsforschung der Technischen Universität Wien unter der Anleitung von Ao.Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Peter Purgathofer und Univ.Ass. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Martin Pichlmair durch Marc-Oliver Marschner Arndtstrasse 60/5a, A-1120 WIEN 01.02.2008 Abstract The goal of this document is to establish a foundation for the creation of music-based computer and video games. The first part is intended to give an overview of sound in video and computer games. It starts with a summary of the history of game sound, beginning with the arguably first documented game, Tennis for Two, and leading up to current developments in the field. Next I present a short introduction to audio, including descriptions of the basic properties of sound waves, as well as of the special characteristics of digital audio. I continue with a presentation of the possibilities of storing digital audio and a summary of the methods used to play back sound with an emphasis on the recreation of realistic environments and the positioning of sound sources in three dimensional space. The chapter is concluded with an overview of possible categorizations of game audio including a method to differentiate between music-based games.
    [Show full text]
  • Hitachi Unified Storage File Module File Services Administration Guide
    Hitachi Unified Storage File Module File Services Administration Guide Release 12.5 MK-92HUSF004-09 December 2015 © 2011-2015 Hitachi, Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or stored in a database or retrieval system for any purpose without the express written permission of Hitachi, Ltd. Hitachi, Ltd., reserves the right to make changes to this document at any time without notice and assumes no responsibility for its use. This document contains the most current information available at the time of publication. When new or revised information becomes available, this entire document will be updated and distributed to all registered users. Some of the features described in this document might not be currently available. Refer to the most recent product announcement for information about feature and product availability, or contact Hitachi Data Systems Corporation at https://portal.hds.com. Notice: Hitachi, Ltd., products and services can be ordered only under the terms and conditions of the applicable Hitachi Data Systems Corporation agreements. The use of Hitachi, Ltd., products is governed by the terms of your agreements with Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. 2 Hitachi Unified Storage File Module File Services Administration Guide Hitachi Data Systems products and services can be ordered only under the terms and conditions of Hitachi Data Systems’ applicable agreements. The use of Hitachi Data Systems products is governed by the terms of your agreements with Hitachi Data Systems. By using this software, you agree that you are responsible for: a) Acquiring the relevant consents as may be required under local privacy laws or otherwise from employees and other individuals to access relevant data; and b) Verifying that data continues to be held, retrieved, deleted, or otherwise processed in accordance with relevant laws.
    [Show full text]
  • A Visual Programming Language for Data Flow Systems
    Rochester Institute of Technology RIT Scholar Works Theses 10-14-1988 A Visual Programming Language for Data Flow Systems Timothy J. Wilson Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.rit.edu/theses Recommended Citation Wilson, Timothy J., "A Visual Programming Language for Data Flow Systems" (1988). Thesis. Rochester Institute of Technology. Accessed from This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by RIT Scholar Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of RIT Scholar Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Rochester Institute of Technology School of Computer Science and Technology A Visual Programming Language for Data Flow Systems by Timothy J. Wilson A thesis submitted to The Faculty of the School of Computer Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science. Approved by: Dr. Peter Lutz 10-18-88 Dr. Andrew Kitchen 10-18-88 Dr. Peter Anderson 10-18-88 October 14, 1988 Abstract The concept ofvisual programming languages is described and some necessary terms are defined. The value of visual languages is presented and a number of different visual languages are described. Various issues, such as user interface design, are discussed. As an example of a visual programming language, a graphical data flow programming environment is developed for the Macintosh workstation which functions as a preprocessor to a data flow simulator developed at RIT. Examples are presented demonstrating the use of the language environment. Issues related to the devel opment of the programming environment are described and conclusions regarding the development ofvisual programming languages in general are presented.
    [Show full text]
  • Card Game Maker: a Card Game Creation System for Unity
    SBC - Proceedings of the SBGames 2014 | ISSN: 2179-2259 Card Game Maker: A card game creation system for Unity Rainer M. Vieira¹ João R. Bittencourt² Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Brazil Abstract existing generic game engine and adapt it to run card games employing the specifications of the creation The current article reports the development process system. This engine, being a layer below the CGM, of a card game creation system bundled with an was named Card Game Maker Engine (CGME). engine to execute these games. To find out the project requirements, case studies of modern card This article is organized into six Sections: in games were used as guidelines to define common Section 1 the motivation for creating the CGM was components in card games that can be used to the presented; In Section 2 a brief review of related work development of said system. With the data acquired will be done; in Section 3 the results of case studies on these studies, a two-layered architecture model that demonstrate the common elements in classic and had been defined, demonstrated by a class diagram. modern card games will be reported; In Section 4 the With the architecture proposed, a study to define the CGME layer proposed model will be presented; In technology requirements to the project had been Section 5 the technological decisions for the made, defining the system as a Unity extension implementation of the presented model will be developed in C#. When the Card Game Maker presented; and finally, in Section 6 the concluding creational process is concluded, a complete game remarks will be made, also reporting future work.
    [Show full text]
  • A Recommended Workflow Methodology in the Creation of An
    Manson et al. BMC Medical Imaging (2015) 15:44 DOI 10.1186/s12880-015-0088-6 TECHNICAL ADVANCE Open Access A recommended workflow methodology in the creation of an educational and training application incorporating a digital reconstruction of the cerebral ventricular system and cerebrospinal fluid circulation to aid anatomical understanding Amy Manson1,2, Matthieu Poyade2 and Paul Rea1* Abstract Background: The use of computer-aided learning in education can be advantageous, especially when interactive three-dimensional (3D) models are used to aid learning of complex 3D structures. The anatomy of the ventricular system of the brain is difficult to fully understand as it is seldom seen in 3D, as is the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). This article outlines a workflow for the creation of an interactive training tool for the cerebral ventricular system, an educationally challenging area of anatomy. This outline is based on the use of widely available computer software packages. Methods: Using MR images of the cerebral ventricular system and several widely available commercial and free software packages, the techniques of 3D modelling, texturing, sculpting, image editing and animations were combined to create a workflow in the creation of an interactive educational and training tool. This was focussed on cerebral ventricular system anatomy, and the flow of cerebrospinal fluid. Results: We have successfully created a robust methodology by using key software packages in the creation of an interactive education and training tool. This has resulted in an application being developed which details the anatomy of the ventricular system, and flow of cerebrospinal fluid using an anatomically accurate 3D model.
    [Show full text]
  • A Survey Full Text Available At
    Full text available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/0600000083 Publishing and Consuming 3D Content on the Web: A Survey Full text available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/0600000083 Other titles in Foundations and Trends R in Computer Graphics and Vision Crowdsourcing in Computer Vision Adriana Kovashka, Olga Russakovsky, Li Fei-Fei and Kristen Grauman ISBN: 978-1-68083-212-9 The Path to Path-Traced Movies Per H. Christensen and Wojciech Jarosz ISBN: 978-1-68083-210-5 (Hyper)-Graphs Inference through Convex Relaxations and Move Making Algorithms Nikos Komodakis, M. Pawan Kumar and Nikos Paragios ISBN: 978-1-68083-138-2 A Survey of Photometric Stereo Techniques Jens Ackermann and Michael Goesele ISBN: 978-1-68083-078-1 Multi-View Stereo: A Tutorial Yasutaka Furukawa and Carlos Hernandez ISBN: 978-1-60198-836-2 Full text available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/0600000083 Publishing and Consuming 3D Content on the Web: A Survey Marco Potenziani Visual Computing Lab, ISTI CNR [email protected] Marco Callieri Visual Computing Lab, ISTI CNR [email protected] Matteo Dellepiane Visual Computing Lab, ISTI CNR [email protected] Roberto Scopigno Visual Computing Lab, ISTI CNR [email protected] Boston — Delft Full text available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/0600000083 Foundations and Trends R in Computer Graphics and Vision Published, sold and distributed by: now Publishers Inc. PO Box 1024 Hanover, MA 02339 United States Tel. +1-781-985-4510 www.nowpublishers.com [email protected] Outside North America: now Publishers Inc.
    [Show full text]
  • Automatic Data Visualization for Novice Pascal Programmers
    Automatic Data Visualization for Novice Pascal Programmers Brad A. Myers Ravinder Chandhok Atul Sareen Computer Science Department Camegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 (412) 268-2565 [email protected] ABSTRACT were designed to explain important concepts, such as which dimension of a multi-dimensioned array comes first, and Previous work has demonstrated that presenting the data which types are assignment compatible. In addition, a structures from programs in a graphical manner can graphic artist participated in the design so the pictures will be significantly help programmers understand and debug their visually appealing. programs. In most previous systems, however, the graphical displays, called data visualizations, had to be laboriously Graphical presentations for data structures are important for a hand created. The Amethyst system, which runs on Apple number of reasons. Human information processing is clearly Macintosh computers, provides attractive and appropriate optimized for pictorial information, and pictures make the default displays for data structures. The default displays data easier to understand for the programmer. This will make include the appropriate forms for literals of the simple types program debugging and program comprehension easier, inside type-specific shapes, and stacked boxes for records because the pictures provide a higher level of abstraction that and arrays. In the near future, we plan to develop rules for removes a number of irrelevant details. In particular, some layout of simple dynamic data structures (like linked lists and of the programming concepts that students have particular binary trees), and simple mechanisms for creating difficulty with can be much better explained with pictures. customized displays.
    [Show full text]
  • Files I Have Known
    FILES I HAVE KNOWN FOREWORD The data reminiscences that follow are probably an unrewarding read. Published reminiscences stand as monuments to the ego of their authors. However, the true purpose of this text is to experimentally substitute digital files with written memories of those files, prompted by metadata. Can the original essence of a data file be recreated purely by words? Many of the files chosen here are obscure and not necessarily available online. It’s likely that the files themselves are of little interest if discovered without their context, forming only fragments of nonsensicality in the wider noise of online data. These reminiscences too may appear as yet further noise flung onto an internet already overpopulated with noise vying for visibility. But by intimately analysing one’s own files in terms of their emotional impact, the reader may come to appreciate that every file has a story. In our daily dealings with data, we partake in the creation of such stories, and the stories also create us. FILES I HAVE KNOWN CHAPTER I “dontryathome.zip” Size: 345KB (345,410 bytes) Created: 31 December 2004 13:53 Format: ZIP Archive “dontryathome.zip” was a compressed archive containing images randomly taken from the web. It’s a file I no longer possess, so all that exists of it now is the above scrap of metadata, the text of the email it was attached to, and the memory. This may well be the eventual fate of all data – future generations might only be left with metadata and memories to reminiscence over if either (a) the pace of technology outstrips the means to preserve and open obsolete file formats, or (b) a sudden cataclysmic environmental or economic global disaster annuls electronic technologies.
    [Show full text]
  • Taxonomies of Visual Programming and Program Visualization
    Taxonomies of Visual Programming and Program Visualization Brad A. Myers September 20, 1989 School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 [email protected] (412) 268-5150 The research described in this paper was partially funded by the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada while I was at the Computer Systems Research Institute, Univer- sity of Toronto, and partially by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DOD), ARPA Order No. 4976 under contract F33615-87-C-1499 and monitored by the Avionics Laboratory, Air Force Wright Aeronautical Laboratories, Aeronautical Systems Division (AFSC), Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-6543. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the author and should not be interpreted as representing the of®cial policies, either expressed or implied, of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the US Government. This paper is an updated version of [4] and [5]. Part of the work for this article was performed while the author was at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Taxonomies of Visual Programming and Program Visualization Brad A. Myers ABSTRACT There has been a great interest recently in systems that use graphics to aid in the programming, debugging, and understanding of computer systems. The terms ``Visual Programming'' and ``Program Visualization'' have been applied to these systems. This paper attempts to provide more meaning to these terms by giving precise de®nitions, and then surveys a number of sys- tems that can be classi®ed as providing Visual Programming or Program Visualization. These systems are organized by classifying them into three different taxonomies.
    [Show full text]