Debugging by skilled and novice programmers
CHI '86 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
A model of novice debugging in LISP
Papers presented at the first workshop on empirical studies of programmers on Empirical studies of programmers
Fragile knowledge and neglected strategies in novice programmers
Papers presented at the first workshop on empirical studies of programmers on Empirical studies of programmers
An analysis of the on-line debugging process
Empirical studies of programmers: second workshop
A review of automated debugging systems: knowledge, strategies and techniques
ICSE '88 Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Software engineering
An analysis of patterns of debugging among novice computer science students
ITiCSE '05 Proceedings of the 10th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
Strategies that students use to trace code: an analysis based in grounded theory
Proceedings of the first international workshop on Computing education research
Successful students' strategies for getting unstuck
Proceedings of the 12th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
Successful and unsuccessful problem solving approaches of novice programmers
Proceedings of the 40th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
Analysis of research into the teaching and learning of programming
ICER '09 Proceedings of the fifth international workshop on Computing education research workshop
Unit test support for Java via reflection and annotations
PPPJ '09 Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Programming in Java
A detector for non-literal Java errors
Proceedings of the 10th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research
On compiler error messages: what they say and what they mean
Advances in Human-Computer Interaction
Measuring the effectiveness of error messages designed for novice programmers
Proceedings of the 42nd ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
Mind your language: on novices' interactions with error messages
Proceedings of the 10th SIGPLAN symposium on New ideas, new paradigms, and reflections on programming and software
Proceedings of the 12th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research
Observing SQL queries in their natural habitat
ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS)
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
A qualitative analysis of debugging strategies of novice Java programmers is presented. The study involved 21 CS2 students from seven universities in the U.S. and U.K. Subjects "warmed up" by coding a solution to a typical introductory problem. This was followed by an exercise debugging a syntactically correct version with logic errors. Many novices found and fixed bugs using strategies such as tracing, commenting out code, diagnostic print statements and methodical testing. Some competently used online resources and debuggers. Students also used pattern matching to detect errors in code that "just didn't look right". However, some used few strategies, applied them ineffectively, or engaged in other unproductive behaviors. This led to poor performance, frustration for some, and occasionally the introduction of new bugs. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.