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Chiodini_Hauswirth_2022_ACM_SPLASH-E
Conference paper (in proceedings)

Expressions in Java : essential, prevalent, neglected?

  • Chiodini, Luca ORCID Istituto del software (SI), Facoltà di scienze informatiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
  • Moreno Santos, Igor ORCID Istituto del software (SI), Facoltà di scienze informatiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
  • Hauswirth, Matthias ORCID Istituto del software (SI), Facoltà di scienze informatiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
  • 2022
Published in:
  • ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on SPLASH-E. - 2022, p. 41-51
Expressions
Java
Textbooks
Blackbox
Trees
Education
Abstract Syntax Tree
Grammar
English Expressions are the building blocks of formal languages such as lambda calculus as well as of programming languages that are closely modeled after it. Although expressions are also an important part of programs in languages like Java, that are not primarily functional, teaching practices typically don’t focus as much on expressions. We conduct both a theoretical analysis of the Java language, as well as an empirical analysis of the use of expressions in Java programs by novices, to understand the role expressions play in writing programs. We then proceed by systematically analyzing teaching materials for Java to characterize how they present expressions. Our findings show that expressions are an essential construct in Java, that they are prevalent in student code, but that current textbooks do not introduce expressions as the central, general, and compositional concept they are.
Collections
Language
  • English
Classification
Computer science and technology
Notes
  • SPLASH-E '22: 2022 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on SPLASH-E
  • Auckland New Zealand
  • December 1, 2022
License
Rights reserved
Open access status
green
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1334760
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