hatful of hollow - Visualising Sorting Algorithms
http://www.hatfulofhollow.com/posts/code/visualisingsorting/index.html

via the cairo graphics lib, see cairographics.org

Cool, visual, way of showing sorting algoriothmsw

Static images of sorting algorithms, pretty neat!

"This whole thing started partly as an excuse to get familiar with the Cairo graphics library. It produces beautiful, clean images, and appears to be both portable and well designed. It also comes with a set of Python bindings that are maintained as part of the project itself - a big plus in my books. Firefox 3 will use Cairo as its standard rendering back end, which will instantly make it one of the most widely used vector graphics libraries out there. "

I dislike animated sorting algorithm visualisations - there's too much of an air of hocus-pocus about them. Something impressive and complicated happens on screen, but more often than not the audience is left mystified. I think their creators must also know that they have precious little explanatory value, because the better ones are sexed up with play-by-play doodles, added, one feels, as an apologetic afterthought by some particularly dorky sportscaster. Nevertheless I've been unable to find a single attempt to visualise a sorting algorithm statically (if you know of any, please drop me a line). So, presented below are the results of a pleasant evening with some nice Scotch and the third volume of Knuth. First, here's a taster - a static visualisation of heapsort: Heapsort I think these simple static visualisations are much clearer than most animated attempts - and they have the added benefit of also being, to my not entirely unbiased eye, rather beautiful.

I think these simple static visualisations are much clearer than most animated attempts - and they have the added benefit of also being, to my not entirely unbiased eye, rather beautiful.