Bishop C. (2005)
Roles of Variables and Program Analysis
M.Sc. Thesis, Computer Science, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.
Abstract: Roles of Variables [1] is a new concept that can help novice programmers comprehension of the programming paradigm. This paper presents an extension to the BlueJ Java development environment that checks the roles played by primitive type variables in simple Java programs. The program uses data flow analysis of Java source code files to check the roles. The results, though based on a limited set of training data, show that data flow analysis can be used successfully to check the roles of variables where there is a sufficiently comprehensive bank of role checking rules. The software presented can be used as is with the training programs to help familiarise students with the roles of variables concept. The modular nature of the software means that it can be further trained as may be required to reliably recognize roles being played by variables in a wider range of Java programs.
BlueJ extension available at http://www.bluej.org/extensions/extensions.html
Last updated: June 14, 2010