Gato - the Graph Animation Toolbox - is a software which visualizes algorithms on graphs. Graphs are mathematical objects consisting of vertices and edges connecting pairs of vertices: think of cities as vertices and interstates as edges connecting two cities. Algorithms might find a shortest path - the fastest route -- or a minimal spanning tree or solve one of other interesting problems on graphs: maximal-flow, weighted and non-weighted matching and min-cost flow. Visualisation means linking cause - the statements of an algorithm - immediately to an effect - changes to the graph the algorithm has as its input - by terms of blinking, changing colors and other visual effects. You can read more about the concepts involved, see examples using HTML or see a video of an example session.

Gato has been developed at the ZAIK, an institute at the Unversity of Cologne. Gato is (c) 1998, 1999 ZAIK, Universität zu Köln and distributed under the Gnu Public License. It runs on all plattforms Python and Tcl/Tk run on, which includes at least Unix, Linux, MacOS and Windows 95/98/NT.

Gato is used in CATBox (the Combinatorial Algorithm Toolbox - an interactive course on discrete mathematics) to be published by Springer Verlag and has been used for courses on algorithms - both in the Computer Science and the Mathematics department - taught at the University of Cologne.

How to run this demo: