A Design Recipe and Recipe-Based Errors for Regular Expressions

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Morazán, Marco T., Dzhatdoyev, Shamil, Rosiers, Josephine Des, Minić, Tijana, Garced, Andrés M., Fields, David Anthony K.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Morazán, Marco T.
Dzhatdoyev, Shamil
Rosiers, Josephine Des
Minić, Tijana
Garced, Andrés M.
Fields, David Anthony K.
author_facet Morazán, Marco T.
Dzhatdoyev, Shamil
Rosiers, Josephine Des
Minić, Tijana
Garced, Andrés M.
Fields, David Anthony K.
contents This article presents a novel framework to provide Formal Languages and Automata Theory students design support for the development of regular expressions. This framework includes a design recipe for regular expressions and a customized error messaging system. The error messaging system produces recipe-based errors that include the step of the design recipe not successfully completed. Furthermore, the error messages follow the established practices of being concise, succinct, jargon-free, and nonprescriptive. In addition, a shorthand syntax developed for writing unit tests is described. The in-class use of the design recipe is illustrated, two debugging sessions using the described system are discussed, and the implementation of the error messaging system is briefly sketched.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_03639
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Design Recipe and Recipe-Based Errors for Regular Expressions
Morazán, Marco T.
Dzhatdoyev, Shamil
Rosiers, Josephine Des
Minić, Tijana
Garced, Andrés M.
Fields, David Anthony K.
Formal Languages and Automata Theory
Human-Computer Interaction
Programming Languages
Software Engineering
This article presents a novel framework to provide Formal Languages and Automata Theory students design support for the development of regular expressions. This framework includes a design recipe for regular expressions and a customized error messaging system. The error messaging system produces recipe-based errors that include the step of the design recipe not successfully completed. Furthermore, the error messages follow the established practices of being concise, succinct, jargon-free, and nonprescriptive. In addition, a shorthand syntax developed for writing unit tests is described. The in-class use of the design recipe is illustrated, two debugging sessions using the described system are discussed, and the implementation of the error messaging system is briefly sketched.
title A Design Recipe and Recipe-Based Errors for Regular Expressions
topic Formal Languages and Automata Theory
Human-Computer Interaction
Programming Languages
Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.03639