Execution visualization and debugging in three-dimensional visual programming

To help programmers debug visual programs, we propose an animated execution method with supporting functions to be used with the animated execution. The animated execution animates state transitions as the program is executed. To make it easy for the programmer to interpret the animation, it is displayed in a manner similar to the visual program. The functions are used to narrow the possible locations of bugs and to test fixed components quickly. We have implemented animated execution and the functions on 3D-PP, our three-dimensional visual programming system.