The goal of this work was to create a program for the animation of algorithms in Silverlight. To develop this Silverlight module, platform .NET and programing language C# were used. This work contains basic information about Silverlight module and similar module named Flash.

The diploma thesis focuses on software tools which enable algorithm animation. In theoretical section of the work are introduced different ways how to present algorithms. Then the field of algorithm animation is described; it's history, development and current state. In the last part of theoretical section are shown possibilities how to use algorithm animation in teaching. Practical section of the thesis focuses on comparison of selected software tools. Selected tools are evaluated based on several criteria. The applications are then compared by multi-criteria decision making methods. Main goal of this thesis is to compare the selected software tools. Partial goals are to introduce advantages of using such applications compared to writing the algorithm in text form.

We report on the state of the field of algorithm visualization, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Computer science educators seem to find algorithm and data structure visualizations attractive for their classrooms. Educational research shows that some are effective while many are not. Clearly, then, visualizations are difficult to create and use right. There is little in the way of a supporting community, and many visualizations are downright poor. Topic distribution is heavily skewed towards simple concepts with advanced topics receiving little to no attention. We have cataloged nearly 400 visualizations available on the Internet. We have a wiki-based catalog which includes availability, platform, strengths and weaknesses, responsible personnel and institutions, and other data about each visualization. We have developed extraction and analysis tools to gather statistics about the corpus of visualizations. Based on analysis of this collection, we point out areas where improvements may be realized and suggest techniques for implementing such improvements. We pay particular attention to the free and open source software movement as a model which the visualization community may do well to emulate, from both a software engineering perspective and a community-building standpoint. / Master of Science