Implementing, and Keeping in Check, a DSL Used in E-Learning

Abstract

We discuss a DSL intended for use in an education setting when teaching the writing of interactive Haskell programs to students. The DSL was previously presented as a small formal language of specifications capturing the behavior of simple console I/O programs, along with a trace-based semantics. A prototypical implementation also exists. When going for productive application in an actual course setting, some robustness and usability questions arise. For example, if programs written by students are mechanically checked and graded by the implementation, what guarantees are there for the educator that the assessment is correct? Does the implementation really agree with the on-paper semantics? What else can inform the educator’s writing of a DSL expression when developing a new exercise task? Which activities beyond testing of student submissions can be mechanized based on the specification language? Can we, for example, generate additional material to hand to students in support of task understanding, before, and feedback or trusted sample solutions, after their own solution attempts? Also, how to keep the framework maintainable, preserving its guarantees when the expressiveness of the underlying DSL is to be extended? Our aim here is to address these and related questions, by reporting on connections we have made and concrete steps we have taken, as well as the bigger picture.