The system currently produces animations on 5620 and 630 terminals and workstations running X11. The system is so easy to use that novice users can animate a program within a few hours. Such animations are useful for debugging programs, developing new programs, and graphically communicating how programs work. An animation is produced by adding print statements to a program. Each statement requests that some piece of the animation is drawn or erased.
Objects can be lines, boxes, circles, or text, positioned arbitrarily.
When movie is used interactively, the viewer can control the speed of display, proceed forward or backward through time, and change the screen layout to emphasize certain views. It is also possible to mark interesting points in time and step from event to event interactively. 529 kbytes Doc. All rights reserved.