Visualizing concurrent computations

The paper describes the conceptual model and specification method for a visualization environment concerned with exploring, monitoring, and presenting concurrent computations. The model is declarative in that visualization is treated as a mapping from program states to a three-dimensional geometric world. The state-to-geometry mapping is defined as a composition of several simpler mappings. This paper shows how this decomposition was molded by two methodological objectives: (1) the desire to visually capture abstract formal properties of programs and (2) the need to support complex animations of atomic computational events. A termination detection algorithm is used to illustrate the specification method and to demonstrate its conceptual elegance and flexibility.< >