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1972 - 197931980 - 19842

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Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.Programming languages (Electronic computers)

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    The design and implementation of a structured programming language with few arbitrary restrictions : the compilation phase : a dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1973) Simpson, Nola M
    This thesis outlines the design and implementation of a structured teaching language with particular emphasis on the compilation phase. This language, which has been called MUSSEL (Massey University Structured Student Language) is intended for instruction of first year Computer Science students. In this respect it is a language which is as free as possible from arbitrary syntactic restrictions and is in a form that the student should find both easy and natural to write, with a minimum incidence of programming errors. It is evident that the language a student uses profoundly influences the way he develops his techniques and habits of construction of algorithms. MUSSEL has been designed with this influence in mind and has been deliberately designed as a structured language i.e. the language reflects the basic structure of programs, so that algorithms can be refined and expressed naturally in it. In this sense MUSSEL aims to teach the student programming as a constructive intellectual discipline rather than just as a tool to communicate with the computer. MUSSEL has been implemented as an interpretive system i.e. during the compilation phase the source language is translated into an intermediate language, which, is then interpreted. The reasons influencing this type of implementation are the need in a teaching language to minimise compile time and to maximise diagnostics, both at compile-time and at execution-time.
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    GED - a generalised syntax editor : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1984) Moretti, Giovanni Serafino
    This thesis traces the development of a full-screen syntax-directed editor - a type of editor that operates on a program in terms of its syntactic tree structure instead of its sequential character representation. The editor is table-driven, reading as input an extended BNF syntax of the target language. It can therefore be used for any language whose syntax can be defined in EBNF. Print formatting information can be included with the syntactic definition to enable programs to be pretty-printed when they are displayed. The user is presented with a pretty-printed skeletal outline of a program with the currently selected construct highlighted and all required syntactic items provided by the editor. Any constructs with alternatives, such as "", which occurs in many languages, are initially denoted by a placeholder in the form of a non-terminal name (i.e. "") which is expanded when the user indicates which alternative is wanted. All symbols entered by the user are parsed immediately and any erroneous symbols rejected, making it impossible to create a syntactically incorrect program. The editor cannot detect semantic errors as no semantic information is available from the EBNF syntax. However the first use of all identifiers is flagged by the editor as an aid to the detection of undeclared identifiers. A "help" area at the bottom of the screen continuously displays a list of the correct next symbols and the syntactic definition of the currently selected program construct. This display, together with a multi-level "undo" command and the provision of a skeletal program by the editor, provides a way of exploring the various constructs in a programming language, while ensuring the syntactic correctness of the resultant program.
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    Design of systems languages : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1975) Freyberg, Christopher Allen
    Systems Languages have often been designed on a rather ad hoc basis. This thesis attempts to formulate and analyse design criteria in a more systematic manner. These criteria are drawn from three major sections: a survey of languages used for systems programming, a discussion of systems programs features, and a discussion of programming language effectiveness. The resulting criteria are then discussed in relation to their application to the language design. A collection of language summaries is included in the appendices.
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    The design of a network command language : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Computer Science at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1980) Jenkins, Phillip Campbell
    Most computer series have their own distinct operating system control language. At present there is no world-wide standard control language, but the recent development of heterogeneous networks, where users may access many different computers, has highlighted the need for one. A project to set up an experimental network, called KIWINET, between Massey and Victoria Universities, initiated research into the design of a standard control language for the network. The result of this research is a high-level, block structured language called the Network Command Language (NCL). The design of this language and its implementation are discussed.
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    The design and implementation of a structured programming language with few arbitrary syntactic restrictions : the interpretive phase : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1972) Gibbons, Peter Blundell
    The first and most important question that must be answered is, "Why in fact do we need a new programming language?". In order to answer this, we must really go back and try to answer the question, "What is programming?". In designing MUSSEL, we have been very much influenced by the ideas of E.W. Dijkstra [35] and N. Wirth [7], [8], and [34]. Wirth, in particular, provides some strong criticism of present day programming courses, and in doing so, formulates some well-reasoned and constructive answers to the question, "What is programming?", or rather, "What should a programming course be?". His views, in fact, are representative of a growing dissatisfaction among many Computer Scientists with the conventional methods being taught to students as an aid to writing programs.