Byckling P., Gerdt P., Nevalainen S. (2004)
Research into Roles of Variables
Fränti P., Marjomaa E. (eds.): Tietojenkäsittelytieteen päivät 2004 (Proceedings of the 2004 National Conference of the Finnish Society for Computer Science), University of Joensuu, Department of Computer Science, International Proceeding Series 5, 21-24.
Introduction: Roles of variables [13] are a new concept that can be utilised, e.g., in teaching programming to novices. Roles represent programming knowledge on a higher level than simple programming language knowledge. Role knowledge has traditionally been tacit but it can be made explicit and thus help students to understand the ways variables are used in programs. Roles are easy to adopt in teaching, too: in one study, computer science teachers learned in less than an hour to recognise roles in their typical uses with 90 % accuracy [2].
The research into roles of variables consists of several different perspectives. In this paper we present research fields of three postgraduate students. The rest of the paper is structured as follows: chapter 2 describes the research into effects of the role concept in strategic programming knowledge. In chapter 3 the research concerning attention and creation of program knowledge is presented. Finally chapter 4 outlines automatic role detection from program code.
Last updated: August 2, 2005