The visualization of a graph semantics of imperative languages

Abstract

This work aims to present the software support for teaching in the field of formal semantics of imperative programming languages. The main part focuses on a software tool that provides a visual representation of the individual steps of the calculation in categorical semantics, which can also be referred to as graph semantics. The use of software tools in teaching to visually represent computational steps considerably facilitates understanding by students and can also serve as a good basis for supporting distance learning. Our program works in the standard form: after reading the correct user input, a visual representation of the meaning of the program is generated in the form of a category of states, which is displayed as an oriented graph. For better extensibility, the program is implemented as a web application.

Keywords

• categorical semantics
• compiler
• semantics of languages
• university didactics,
• visualization
• web application