Visualisierung und Animation der semantischen Analyse von Programmen

In computer science methods to aid learning are very important, because abstract models are used frequently. For this conventional teaching methods do not suffice. We have developed an educational software, that helps the learner to better understand principles of compiler construction, in particular the semantical analysis of the source program. The software offers on the one hand an interactive introduction to the problems of the subtasks of the semantical analysis, in which the most important definitions and algorithms are presented in graphically appealing form. On the other hand the learner has the possibility to enter examples and to test and reinforce his/her new knowledge graphically on dynamically generated animations and visualizations. Examples can be input programs, expressions or specifications. Our educational software can be used as learning help in teaching as well as for self-instruction. We discuss design principles used throughout the design of the software, give a brief description of the implementation, show some examples and discuss related work.