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Mini-languages: a way to learn programming principles

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Abstract

Mini-languages are a visually intuitive, simple and powerful way to introduce students to programming. They are a good foundation for general computer science instruction, provide insight into programming for the general population, and teach algorithmic thinking. The goal of the paper is to provide an extensive review of the mini-language approach to teaching programming. For different audiences and in different countries, the authors have extensive experience in design and application of mini-languages. We outline the problems that motivate the application of this approach, present a brief history, review several existing mini-languages, and provide discussion of lessons learned. In particular, we discuss how to choose a mini-language for a particular group of students and list some requirements for a successful application of a mini- language. We conclude with a discussion of possible future directions of the mini-language approach development

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Peter Brusilovsky & Philip Miller

  2. Dipartimento di Ingegneria deli' Informazione, University of Parma, 43100, Parma, Italy

    Eduardo Calabrese

  3. University of Economics, 83220, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Jozef Hvorecky

  4. Department of Mathematics, Penn State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Anatoly Kouchnirenko

Authors
  1. Peter Brusilovsky
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  2. Eduardo Calabrese
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  3. Jozef Hvorecky
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  4. Anatoly Kouchnirenko
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  5. Philip Miller
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Brusilovsky, P., Calabrese, E., Hvorecky, J. et al. Mini-languages: a way to learn programming principles. Education and Information Technologies 2, 65–83 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018636507883

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