Visualization plan/tool?

[dellswor]

Do we have a plan for how students will be visualizing the output from their programs? I didn't see Visit on the HPCLinux OVA. In completing the initial 3 language implementation, debugging became an issue because it wasn't clear what I should be using to give meaning to the numeric output.

[jameskress]

I can't speak to the visualization too much, but visit is listed as a module in the OVA, but I get an error trying to load it. Maybe it has dependencies that I am not satisfying.

[brnd0n]

I don't think introducing them to Visit would be best. It's just another thing that may confuse students, especially given this isn't a vis class. Also, I don't really think everything they might be doing for homework or labs will be visualizable.

I guess I'm not entirely sure what the issue is.

[dellswor]

I'm interested in what we're going to expect the students to use to validate/verify that the program generates correct output... There's not a lot of personal meaning in generating a stream of data if the data doesn't represent something. Debugging can also be hard if there is a lot of data and not a good framework for understanding how it differs from the expected output. Visit may not be the tool but I think it will be hard for our students to be successful if they don't have a way to look at the output visually.