OLC, on-line compiler to teach programming languages

Abstract

The advance of Internet towards Web 2.0 conveys the potential it has in a wide range of scopes. The ongoing progress of the Web technology and its availability in teaching and learning, as well as a students' profile increasingly more used to managing an important amount of digital information, offers lecturers the opportunity and challenge of putting at students' disposal didactic tools making use of the Internet. Programming is one of the essential areas taught in university studies of Computer Science and other engineering degrees. At present, it is a knowledge acquired through tutorial classes and the practice with different tools for programming. This paper shows the acquired experience in the development and use of a simple compiler accessible through a Web page. In addition it presents a teaching proposal for its use in subjects that include programming languages lessons. OLC - On-Line Compiler - is an application which greatly lightens the student's workload at the initial stage of programming. During this initial period they will neither have to deal with the complexities of the installation and the configuration of these types of tools, nor with the understanding of multiple options which they present. Therefore students can concentrate on the comprehension of the programming structures and the programming language to be studied.