A Program Beacon Recognition Tool

Learning to program is not an easy task. Program comprehension is integral to this process. Two main theories of program comprehension have been identified as a result of more than thirty years of investigation into the human psychology of computer programming. Both theories rely on the presence of program beacons. Beacons are described as key features in a program that serve as indicators of a particular programming structure. Beacons primarily convey semantic knowledge about the program and tend to be highly recognizable within a program by expert programmers. Technology can assist novice programmers with the learning process associated with program comprehension by making use of interactive tools that focus on the identification of program beacons. This paper describes a program beacon recognition tool developed during 2005. The primary purpose of the tool is to encourage a novice programmer to correctly identify beacons within provided program extracts. The tool is an attempt to empower novice programmers while learning to program so that they master the skills directly associated with program comprehension