Authors:
Kota Uchida
1
and
Katsuhiko Gondow
2
Affiliations:
1
Cyboze and Inc., Japan
;
2
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
Keyword(s):
Programming Education, C Static Checker, Compiler Warning Messages, Latent Errors, Heuristics, Novice Programmer.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Authoring Tools and Content Development
;
Computer-Supported Education
;
Domain Applications and Case Studies
;
e-Learning
;
Information Technologies Supporting Learning
;
Intelligent Learning and Teaching Systems
Abstract:
For better programming language education, it is crucial to make compiler warning messages more understandable
for novice programmers. Unfortunately, however, Kojima’s research showed warning messages in
commercial-level compilers like GCC are still difficult to understand, and the commercial-level compilers tend
not to emit how to modify programs to correct the problems. Furthermore, we found that they also tend not
to handle latent errors. To solve this problem, by using a heuristic approach, we propose a novel C static
checker called C-Helper, that aims to emit more direct error messages understandable for novices to correct
wrong programs, and also aims to handle latent errors. Our preliminary evaluation shows that C-Helper was
positively evaluated, although our heuristic approach increased false-positives.