HSAS: a heuristic development tool

The authors present HSAS (heuristic search animation system), a tool which uses algorithm animation to aid the development of heuristics. HSAS has been used to analyze A* and study another search algorithm which uses islands or subgoals. It has been demonstrated that algorithm animation can be a useful tool when developing heuristics. The tool presented, HSAS, is a stepping stone into the arena of full-blown algorithm animation systems. When completed, HSAS will provide a complete environment for creating, debugging, and comparing heuristics