ThreadMentor: a pedagogical tool for multithreaded programming

ABSTRACT

ThreadMentor is a multiplatform pedagogical tool designed to ease the difficulty in teaching and learning multithreaded programming. It consists of a C++ class library and a visualization system. The class library supports many thread management functions and synchronization primitives in an object-oriented way, and the visualization system is activated automatically by a user program and shows the inner working of every thread and every synchronization primitive on-the-fly. Events can also be saved for playback. In this way, students will be able to visualize the dynamic behavior of a threaded program and the interaction among threads and synchronization primitives.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.1 PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES
      D.1.3 Concurrent Programming

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.4 OPERATING SYSTEMS
      D.4.1 Process Management

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Computer science education

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Performance

Keywords:
multithreaded programming, synchronization, synchronization primitives, threads, visualization