CMeRun: program logic debugging courseware for CS1/CS2 students

ABSTRACT

It is generally known that most, if not all, beginning programming students have difficulty understanding and debugging programs. For many students the primary problem is that when a program executes, it is essentially a "black box". They know what they think they wrote, but their only clues to logic errors come from watching the output of the program. If there are problems, it is difficult for inexperienced programmers to trace the problem back to the source of the error(s). This paper presents CMeRun, a tool that allows the user to see each statement in a program as it executes. This tool will allow beginning students to master coding and debugging skills much faster since it allows them to "look into" a program as it executes. Having this kind of insight into program execution will improve understanding, decrease development time, and reduce student frustration.

REFERENCES

• 1: Alistair E. R. Campbell , Geoffrey L. Catto , Eric E. Hansen, Language-independent interactive data visualization, Proceedings of the 34th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, February 19-23, 2003, Reno, Navada, USA
• 2: Maria Hristova , Ananya Misra , Megan Rutter , Rebecca Mercuri, Identifying and correcting Java programming errors for introductory computer science students, Proceedings of the 34th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, February 19-23, 2003, Reno, Navada, USA
• 3: Kolling M., The BlueJ Tutorial, Jan 2002. http://www.bluej.org/tutorial/tutorial.pdf
• 4: PLT Scheme: Software: DrScheme Home Page, Jan 2002. http://www.plt-scheme.org/software/drscheme/
• 5: John T. Stasko, Tango: A Framework and System for Algorithm Animation, Computer, v.23 n.9, p.27-39, September 1990 [doi>10.1109/2.58216]
• 6: Stasko, J. T., and Lawrence, A. Using student-built algorithms as learning aids. In Software Visualization: Programming as a Multimedia Experience, J. T. Stasko, J. B. Domingue, M. H. Brown, and B. A. Price, Eds. The MIT Press, 1998, pp. 419--438.
• 7: TA Online. Common Java Compiler Errors. Dept. of Computer Science, University of Arizona, Feb. 2002. http://www.cs.arizona.edu/people/teena/ta_online/

INDEX TERMS

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

General Terms:
Human Factors, Languages

Keywords:
CS1, CS2, courseware, debugging aid, pedagogy