Reviews

June 1, 2001

Massimo Rotunno, "I ferri del mestiere", Applicando, June 2001

[...] Leonardo IDE è un ambiente di sviluppo per C e animazioni in linguaggio Alpha: non è un ambiente di sviluppo completo, ma è da considerarsi molto specifico e indirizzato allo sviluppo di simulazioni scientifiche, applicazioni matematiche, animazioni e dimostrazioni grafiche, implementazioni di algoritmi. Il manuale è diponibile on-line, e sul sito si trovano numerosi link, suggerimenti e documenti integrativi di questo versatile ambiente di sviluppo. [...]

April 29, 2001

Joseph J. Strout, "Learning from Leonardo", MacTech Volume 15, Issue 10

[...] Leonardo is a very remarkable application. While perhaps not as polished as a commercial IDE, it is extremely well polished by the standards of free software, and it was rock solid in my hands. The visualization provided by the Alpha predicates allow one to watch an algorithm at work in a very powerful and intuitive way, and the ability to step ordinary C code forward and backward is nothing short of amazing.

This application would be most useful in computer science and programming courses. It comes with a large library of common data structures and algorithms right out of the box, ready to illustrate their workings in animated color, and more could easily be written from these examples. Any one of these could feature prominently in a class lecture, and is likely to engage the students and foster comprehension much better than abstract discussions or static diagrams. Since Leonardo is free, students can be encouraged to download a copy and play with the programs on their own. When they do, they'll find Leonardo's reversible execution to be an extremely helpful way to explore any algorithm. [...]

January 4, 2001

c't 14/00, S. 181: Free- & Shareware

Die Entwicklungsumgebung Leonardo basiert auf einer Virtual Machine, die es ermöglicht, ANSI-C-kompatible Programme auszuführen und zu debuggen - ausführbare Mac-Applikationen lassen sich mit die-ser IDE nicht erstellen. Besonders Einsteiger werden dabei von Leonardos ‘Undo’-Feature profitieren können: Es erlaubt das Zurücknehmen bereits ausgeführter C-Befehle (einschließlich von Aufrufen der ANSI-Bibliotheken). Auswirkungen eines Befehls lassen sich auf diese Weise leichter veranschaulichen, beispielsweise mit Hilfe der integrierten visuellen Debugging-Umgebung. Hervorragend ist die mitgelieferte Sammlung an Beispielprogrammen. Dazu zählen etwa bekannte Algorithmen wie Graphfärbung oder Huffmann-Kodierung, eine schrittweise rückwärts ausführbare Tetris-Ausgabe sowie ein Disassembler.

November 3, 1999

Harold Thimbleby, "Leonardo and the Pictorial Computing Laboratory", lecture, Middlesex University, UK

Leonardo is an exciting approach to animating programs, which can be used for fun, teaching, and debugging. Although using standard C, Leonardo's ideas could be taken up for animating other languages, such as Java. Leonardo will be demonstrated, showing animating conventional algorithms like sorting to playing games [...]

September 1, 1999

MacAddict 37, Volume 4, Issue 9, September 1999 (CD-ROM)

This integrated environment will allow you to develop and animate C programs. It’s not intended to be a professional IDE, but can be useful for visually debugging C programs and for creating algorithm animations in a declarative style. This program is the first reversible implementation of the ANSI C library. It features a text editor with syntax coloring, a compiler for the ANSI C language and for the ALPHA language, a reversible virtual CPU, an integrated logic-based visualization system, a basic graph editor, and more. Requires a PPC running Mac OS 7.5 or later.

August 27, 1999

Tobias Engler, c't 18/99, S. 62: Free- & Shareware

Debugging-Künstler.
Visualisierungsumgebung für C am Macintosh.
Täglich bewahrheitet sich an Entwicklerplätzen in aller Welt das alte Sprichwort: ‘Ist der Rechner abgestorben, war wohl das Programm verdorben.’ Dann hilft nur noch die Fehlersuche, auch Debugging genannt. Ein mühseliger Vorgang: Gewöhnliche Debugger kann man nicht im Code des zu untersuchenden Programms zurücklaufen lassen, vielmehr muss man dort stets wieder am Anfang beginnen. Die Entwicklungsumgebung Leonardo löst dieses Problem und glänzt zusätzlich noch in manch anderer Hinsicht. [...]

August 2, 1999

The Mac Resource Page News

Leonardo IDE 3.4.1 is a freeware (PPC only) integrated environment for development, reversible execution and visual debugging of C code; it includes a text editor with syntax coloring, a fully reversible virtual CPU for executing programs, an ANSI C compiler, a compiler for the logic-based ALPHA visualization language, built-in operating system facilities for process, I/O, and memory management, an integrated logic-based general-purpose 2D visualization system, and a simple graph editor.

August 1, 1999

The Macintosh News Network

Leonardo IDE 3.4.1 is "an integrated environment for development, reversible execution and visual debugging of C programs. It is especially well suited for algorithm animation purposes and for learning the C language."

July 18, 1999

Mac Picks ChezMark Volume 5, Number 29

Leonardo IDE 3.4. Self-contained C programming environment includes a text editor (with syntax coloring), compilers for ANSI C and ALPHA, a reversible virtual CPU, a very simple operating system for process, I/O and memory management, an integrated logic-based visualization system, and a basic graph editor. Note that you cannot create stand alone Mac programs with this app (all programs must be run on the program's built-in virtual machine).