A Web-Based Educational System for Teaching Compilers

Although we are witnessing the accelerated development of computer science, and the opening of new fields of study, compiler construction is still a very important field that is taught at most world universities. Because of a large number of algorithms and complex theoretical constructions, these topics represent a difficult and complex domain for teachers to teach and for students to gain a better understanding. Educational software systems play an increasingly important role in the engineering sciences. These systems aim to help students learn by turning abstract theoretical concepts into tangible objects that students can interact with. In this article, we present the web-based simulation system ComVis, which represents a set of tools for learning and teaching topics in the field of compilers. The original version of the ComVis system is written in Java and is available as a desktop application. For greater accessibility and better visual representation, we have developed a web-based simulation system. In addition to new functionalities, this system also includes a large number of topics from the field of compilers. This article provides an overview of the tools that comprise the web-based ComVis system, with an emphasis on the interactivity that students achieve with the system in the learning process. The results of using the web-based ComVis system were verified by a quantitative evaluation of the system's effectiveness through a controlled experiment and a qualitative evaluation of usability by student survey and heuristic tests by experts.