Miracle, An Environment for Teaching Programming

编程就是解决问题！在计算机上解决问题的本质是产生可行的解算法。接下来是将算法翻译成机器可识别的指令，这通常是一项例行的、繁琐的工作。该项目的目标是教学生用一些流行的语言编程，而不被复杂的语法所困扰。该项目将开发一个名为“奇迹”的编程环境，在这个环境中，面向目标的高级工具可以避免不必要的单调翻译。然后，学生可以专注于开发解决问题的技能和编程逻辑，而一旦他们产生算法，奇迹将为他们生成所需的代码。尽管语法对于专业程序员来说是一项有用的技能，但对于大多数学生来说，它并不是最重要的技能，因为他们只是需要对编程有一些了解，作为他们一般“计算机流畅性”的一部分。已经构建了编程环境Miracle的原型，它将学生的伪代码转换为JavaScript代码，并允许学生获得他/她的结果。这个原型不够强大，也不够通用。在这个项目中，原型将得到增强(1)以处理更复杂的编程逻辑；(2)除了JavaScript之外，还提供各种目标语言，如Visual Basic和Java。这种方法对非计算机科学专业的学生进行编程教学的好处是：(1)学生解决问题和分析推理的能力得到了提高，因为在这些方面的课程上花费的时间比在语法结构上花费的时间要多；(2)学生知道他们可以使用Miracle解决问题并生成许多流行编程语言的代码，这让他们感到满意。

Programming is problem solving! The essence of solving a problem on the computer is the production of a viable solution algorithm. This is then followed by a routine and often tedious translation of the algorithm into machine recognizable instructions. The project goal is to teach students to program in some popular languages, without becoming entangled in a web of syntactic complications. The project will develop a programming environment called "Miracle," in which high-level goal-oriented tools circumvent the unnecessary tedium of translation. Students can then focus on developing problem-solving skills and programming logic, while Miracle will generate the desired code for them once they have produced the algorithm. Although syntax is a useful skill for professional programmers, it is not the most important skill for most students who only need some idea about programming as part of their general "computer fluency." A prototype of the programming environment Miracle has been built, which translates the student's pseudocode into a JavaScript code and allows the student to get his/her results. This prototype is not nearly powerful enough nor general enough. In this project, the prototype will be enhanced (1) to handle more sophisticated programming logic and (2) to offer, in addition to JavaScript, a variety of target languages, such as Visual Basic and Java. The advantages of this approach to teaching programming to students not majoring in computer science are (1) the problem-solving and analytic reasoning skills of students are sharpened because more time can be spent on these aspects of the course than on syntactic structure, and (2) students have the satisfaction of knowing that they can solve their problems and produce code in many popular programming languages using Miracle.