Commands | Getting
Started | Examples | Jawaa Editor | Talks | Papers | Contacts
JAWAA is a scripting language for creating animations on the web easily.
Written in Java, the program provides an interface through which users can
write animations and then display them with any web browser that supports
Java. The animations are written by users in a simple script language that
can easily be learned by people with little or no programming
experience. For more advanced users, JAWAA commands can be added to
their program to quickly produce an animation of a data structure such
as an array, stack, queue, graph or tree. That is, JAWAA commands can be
added to a program written in any programming language to produce a JAWAA
output file that is called from a web page and produces the animation.
A component of JAWAA is the JAWAA editor. This editor allows one to lay
out animations graphically by laying out objects, and then modifying them across
time. The editor then has the ability to export the animations to an .anim
file, a text document with commands, that displays the animation in a web
browser as an applet. The purpose of the editor is to make the creation of
animations easier. Configuration of the location of the objects is automatic as
opposed to having to plug in coordinate values and working based on trial
and error. Once the animation is exported to an .anim file, it can be
combined with or edited as animations hand-written in JAWAA. This is
useful because it reduces the time to create the animation and it allows
animation files to be combined.
TRY IT NOW - You can try JAWAA out without installing it, just copy
the initial web page and generate a script and
run it over the web from Duke. Alternatively, you can get the source code and run it over the web but linked to
your site so it may work faster. This is recommended for people outside of
the U.S.
Below are links for the source code, the JAWAA 2.0 manual page,
help on getting started, sample files and
several example animations that use JAWAA 2.0. On each example
page there is a link
to the animation script which drives the animation at the bottom of
the web page.
How is JAWAA 2.0 different than the old JAWAA?
-
Some of the scripting language has changed, so old JAWAA code may not
work
in JAWAA 2.0.
-
There is now a JAWAA Editor that allows you to create
complex objects and their placement first. Then you can combine this
file with file from your program that moves the objects around.
- Graph and Tree commands dont work yet in JAWAA 2.0, but you can still create
graphs and trees by using the node and connectNodes commands.
Tip on using JAWAA
- When developing a JAWAA animation, select "SHOW JAVA CONSOLE WINDOW"
on your browser and you will see the JAWAA commands displayed as they are
executed. This will help in debugging your JAWAA code.
Source Code:
Using the Jawaa Editor:
Student Animation Projects:
Note: These animations were done using the previous version of JAWAA
and may not function properly with Version 2.0.
- S. H. Rodger, Using Hands-on Visualizations to Teach Computer Science from
Beginning Courses to Advanced Courses, Second Program Visualization
Workshop, Hornstrup Centert, Denmark, (6 pages) June 2002. pdf
- S. H. Rodger, Introducing Computer Science Through Animation and Virtual
Worlds, Thirty-third SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science
Education, p. 186-190, 2002. pdf
- W. Pierson and S. H. Rodger, Web-based Animation of Data Structures Using
JAWAA, Twenty-ninth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science
Education, p. 267-271, 1998. ps
or pdf
- Using Hands-On Visualizations to Teach Computer Science from Beginning
Courses to Advanced Courses, Second Program Visualization Workshop,
HornstrupCentret, Denmark, June 28, 2002. html
- Introducing Computer Science Through Animation and Virtual Worlds,
Thirty-third SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education,
Cincinnati, Ohio, March 1, 2002. html
- Using JFLAP for Visualization and Interaction in the Automata Theory
Course, and JAWAA for automatic animation of data structures, Dagstuhl,
Germany, May 25, 2001. html
- Integrating Visualization and Animation into the Teaching of Computer
Science Courses, The Advance Program, Duke University, February 26, 2001 html
Who are the creators and developers of JAWAA?
The original JAWAA was created at Duke University by Professor Susan Rodger and
Duke undergraduate, Will Pierson. Since then many Duke undergraduates have worked on JAWAA including:
Pretesh Patel, Thomas Finley, Ayonike Akingbade, and a Wofford College
undergraduate, Diana Jackson.
There is a mailing list for JAWAA that will include updates. To get on the
mailing list send mail to rodger AT cs.duke.edu. We also like to hear about
your use of JAWAA. Send us animations and we will put them on our
example animations page.