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Integrating a Graph Builder into Python Tutor

Authors Diogo Soares, Maria João Varanda Pereira , Pedro Rangel Henriques

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Author Details

Diogo Soares
  • University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
Maria João Varanda Pereira
  • Research Centre in Digitalization and Intelligent Robotics, Polythechnic Insitute of Bragança, Portugal
Pedro Rangel Henriques
  • University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

Funding

This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Projects Scopes: UIDB/05757/2020 and UIDB/00319/2020.

Cite As Get BibTex

Diogo Soares, Maria João Varanda Pereira, and Pedro Rangel Henriques. Integrating a Graph Builder into Python Tutor. In Second International Computer Programming Education Conference (ICPEC 2021). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 91, pp. 6:1-6:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021) https://doi.org/10.4230/OASIcs.ICPEC.2021.6

Abstract

Analysing unknown source code to comprehend it is quite hard and expensive task. Therefore, the Program Comprehension (PC) subject has always been an area of interest as it helps to realize how a program works by identifying the code that implements each functionality. This means being able to map the problem domain with the program domain. PC is a complex area, but its importance for programmers is so high that many approaches and tools were proposed along the last two decades. Program Animation is one of those approaches requiring specialized techniques.
For each programming language, there are already tools that enable us to execute a program step by step, visualize its execution path, observe the effect of each instruction on its data structures, and inspect the value of its variables at any point.
In the present context, we sustain the idea that PC techniques and tools can also be of great value for students taking the first steps in programming using a specific language. To this end, we aim to improve Python Tutor, a well-known program visualization tool, with graph-based representations of source code such as Control Flow Graph (CFG), Data Flow Graph (DFG), Function Call Graph (FCG) and System Control Graph (SCG).
This helps novice programmers to understand the source code analyzing not only the variable contents but also a set of automatically generated graph-based visualizations, that were not included in Python Tutor so far. This will allow the students to be focused on certain aspects of the program (depending on the graph), abstracting others such as details of its syntax.

Subject Classification

ACM Subject Classification
  • Human-centered computing → Visualization systems and tools
  • Social and professional topics → Computer science education
  • Software and its engineering → Source code generation
Keywords
  • Program Visualization
  • Python Tutor
  • Data Flow Graphs
  • Control Flow Graphs

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