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An Empirical Investigation into Programming Language Syntax

Stefik, Andreas, Siebert, Susanna·2013·ACM Transactions on Computing Education

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Abstract

Recent studies in the literature have shown that syntax remains a significant barrier to novice computer science students in the field. While this syntax barrier is known to exist, whether and how it varies across programming languages has not been carefully investigated. For this article, we conducted four empirical studies on programming language syntax as part of a larger analysis into the, so called, programming language wars. We first present two surveys conducted with students on the intuitiveness of syntax, which we used to garner formative clues on what words and symbols might be easy for novices to understand. We followed up with two studies on the accuracy rates of novices using a total of six programming languages: Ruby, Java, Perl, Python, Randomo, and Quorum. Randomo was designed by randomly choosing some keywords from the ASCII table (a metaphorical placebo). To our surprise, we found that languages using a more traditional C-style syntax (both Perl and Java) did not afford accuracy rates significantly higher than a language with randomly generated keywords, but that languages which deviate (Quorum, Python, and Ruby) did. These results, including the specifics of syntax that are particularly problematic for novices, may help teachers of introductory programming courses in choosing appropriate first languages and in helping students to overcome the challenges they face with syntax.

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Authors: Stefik, A., & Siebert, S.
Affiliations: University of Nevada, Las Vegas (US)
Washington University in St. Louis (US)
ORCID: Stefik, Andreas
Venue: ACM Transactions on Computing Education
Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Published: 2013-11
Volume: 13
Issue: 4
Pages: 1-40
ISSN: 1946-6226 (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.1145/2534973
OpenAlex: W2157148654
Cited by: 295
References: 84
Citations by year: 2026: 14 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 60 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 2
FWCI: 25.18
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Licence: www.acm.org/publications/policies/copyright_policy#Background (vor)
Locations: ACM Transactions on Computing Education (publishedVersion)
Funders: Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS-0940521)
Topics: Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Teaching and Learning Programming
Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Software › Logic, programming, and type systems
Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Research
Keywords: programming language syntax, novice programmers, quorum, Python, ruby, Java, Perl, introductory programming

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An Empirical Investigation into Programming Language Syntax

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