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The design and implementation of a table driven, interactive diagnostic programming system

Authors:

Thomas R. Wilcox,

Alan M. Davis,

Michael H. TindallAuthors Info & Claims

Communications of the ACM, Volume 19, Issue 11

Pages 609 - 616

https://doi.org/10.1145/360363.360367

Published: 01 November 1976 Publication History

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Abstract

CAPS is a highly interactive diagnostic compiler/interpreter that allows beginning programmers to prepare, debug, and execute fairly simple programs at a graphics display terminal. Complete syntax checking and most semantic analysis is performed as the program is entered and as it is subsequently edited. Analysis is performed character by character.

The most remarkable feature of CAPS is its ability to automatically diagnose errors both at compile time and at run time. Errors are not automatically corrected. Instead, CAPS interacts with the student to help him find the cause of his error.

Most components of CAPS are table driven, both to reduce the space needed for implementation and to increase the flexibility of the multilingual system. Over 500 students have used CAPS to learn Fortran, PL/I, or Cobol in conjunction with a computer assisted course on introductory computer science.

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Cited By

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Apiola MSaqr MLopez-Pernas STedre M(2022)Computing Education Research Compiled: Keyword Trends, Building Blocks, Creators, and DisseminationIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2022.315760910(27041-27068)Online publication date: 2022
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Budinsky FHolt RZaky S(2006)Sre—a syntax recognizing editorSoftware: Practice and Experience10.1002/spe.438015050715:5(489-497)Online publication date: 30-Oct-2006
https://doi.org/10.1002/spe.4380150507
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Communications of the ACM Volume 19, Issue 11

Nov. 1976

54 pages

ISSN:0001-0782

EISSN:1557-7317

DOI:10.1145/360363

Editor:
Robert L. Ashenhurst
Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Issue’s Table of Contents

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

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Publication History

Published: 01 November 1976

Published in CACM Volume 19, Issue 11

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Apiola MSaqr MLopez-Pernas STedre M(2022)Computing Education Research Compiled: Keyword Trends, Building Blocks, Creators, and DisseminationIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2022.315760910(27041-27068)Online publication date: 2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3157609
Bernardy JWeirich S(2009)Lazy functional incremental parsingProceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGPLAN symposium on Haskell10.1145/1596638.1596645(49-60)Online publication date: 3-Sep-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1596638.1596645
Budinsky FHolt RZaky S(2006)Sre—a syntax recognizing editorSoftware: Practice and Experience10.1002/spe.438015050715:5(489-497)Online publication date: 30-Oct-2006
https://doi.org/10.1002/spe.4380150507
Allison L(2006)Syntax directed program editingSoftware: Practice and Experience10.1002/spe.438013050713:5(453-465)Online publication date: 30-Oct-2006
https://doi.org/10.1002/spe.4380130507
Ledgard HSinger AWhiteside J(2005)Directions in human factors for interactive systemsDirections in Human Factors for Interactive Systems10.1007/3-540-10574-3_2(1-188)Online publication date: 26-May-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-10574-3_2
Degano PPriami C(1998)LR techniques for handling syntax errorsComputer Languages10.1016/S0096-0551(97)00016-724:2(73-98)Online publication date: 1-Jul-1998
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/S0096-0551%2897%2900016-7
Kearsley G(1995)The Relevance of AI Research to CAIJournal of Educational Technology Systems10.2190/9WPY-EQ0J-8MT0-RGWR6:3(229-250)Online publication date: 1-Jan-1995
https://doi.org/10.2190/9WPY-EQ0J-8MT0-RGWR
Degano PPriami C(1995)Comparison of syntactic error handling in LR parsersSoftware—Practice & Experience10.1002/spe.438025060625:6(657-679)Online publication date: 1-Jun-1995
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/spe.4380250606
Bianchi UDegano PMannucci SMartini SMojana BPriami CSalvatori E(1993)Generating the analytic component parts of syntax-directed editors with efficient-error recoveryJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/0164-1212(93)90061-223:1(65-79)Online publication date: 1-Oct-1993
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/0164-1212%2893%2990061-2
van den Bosch P(1992)A bibliography on syntax error handling in context free languagesACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/131080.13109027:4(77-86)Online publication date: 1-Apr-1992
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