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In a programmer's pursuit of using or creating new programming languages, finding errors in the syntax of code can present many issues. Languages with little to no documentation and incomprehensible exception handling and reports are frustrating to work with and can create confusion when trying to locate where in the code the program has faulted. In this paper we present {\em CodeBlock}, a parser generator and syntax checker for arbitrary programming languages. CodeBlock is a block based grammar builder for any programming language that constructs a parsing expression grammar for the language based on user built expressions. This grammar can then be used within the CodeBlock website or in the CodeBlock Node.JS application to test the syntax of either written code, or files containing code in the language, reporting comprehensible error messages if errors in syntax are found. Our eventual goal is to incorporate CodeBlock into a compiler design tutoring system, called {\em CompiTS}, in which it will play a central role in teaching students how to design new programming languages and test the effectiveness of the new language using rapid prototyping and a translational approach to implementation. This is an emerging research, and in this paper, we only focus on the syntax checking component of the CompiTS system.
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Emerging languages: An alternative approach to teaching programming languages
Abstract We challenge the idea that a course intended to convey principles of languages should be structured according to those principles, and present an alternate approach to teaching a programming language course. The approach involves teaching emerging programming languages. This approach results in a variety of course desiderata including scope for instructor customization; alignment with current trends in language evolution, practice, and research; and congruence with industrial needs. We discuss the rationale for, the course mechanics supporting, and the consequences of this approach.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1712406
- PAR ID:
- 10179044
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Functional Programming
- Volume:
- 29
- ISSN:
- 0956-7968
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1017/S095679681900011X
