research-article

Backstop: a tool for debugging runtime errors

Authors:

Christian Murphy,

Adam CannonAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '08: Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education

Pages 173 - 177

https://doi.org/10.1145/1352135.1352193

Published: 12 March 2008 Publication History

Abstract

The errors that Java programmers are likely to encounter can roughly be categorized into three groups: compile-time (semantic and syntactic), logical, and runtime (exceptions). While much work has focused on the first two, there are very few tools that exist for interpreting the sometimes cryptic messages that result from runtime errors. Novice programmers in particular have difficulty dealing with uncaught exceptions in their code and the resulting stack traces, which are by no means easy to understand. We present Backstop, a tool for debugging runtime errors in Java applications. This tool provides more user-friendly error messages when an uncaught exception occurs, and also provides debugging support by allowing users to watch the execution of the program and the changes to the values of variables. We also present the results of two preliminary studies conducted on introductory-level programmers using the two different features of the tool.

References

[1]

M. Ahmadzadeh, D. Elliman, C. Higgins, "An Analysis of Patterns of Debugging Among Novice Computer Science Students", Proc. of ITiCSE '05, Portugal, June 2005, 84--88.

Digital Library

[2]

E. Allen, R. Cartwright, B. Stoler, "DrJava: A lightweight pedagogic environment for Java", Proc. of SIGCSE 2002, Covington KY, Feb 2002, 137--141.

Digital Library

[3]

R. Chmiel, M.C. Loui, "Debugging: from novice to expert", Proc. of SIGCSE 2004, Norfolk VA, Mar 2004, 17--21.

Digital Library

[4]

J. Etheredge, "CMeRun: Program Logic Debugging Courseware for CS1/CS2 Students", Proc. of SIGCSE 2004, Norfolk VA, March 2004, 22--25.

Digital Library

[5]

T. Flowers, C. Carver, J. Jackson, "Empowering Students and Building Confidence in Novice Programmers through Gauntlet", 34th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Savannah GA, Oct 2004, T3H-10 -- T3H13.

[6]

K. Gray and M. Flatt, "ProfessorJ: A Gradual Introduction to Java through Language Levels", Proc. of OOPSLA '03, Anaheim CA, Oct 2003, 170--177.

Digital Library

[7]

R. Hasker, "HiC: A C++ Compiler for CS1", Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges 18:1, Oct 2002, 56--64.

Digital Library

[8]

M. Hristova, A. Misra, M. Rutter, R. Mercuri, "Identifying and Correcting Java Programming Errors for Introductory Computer Science Students", Proc. of SIGCSE 2003, Reno NV, Feb 2003, 153--156.

Digital Library

[9]

J. Jackson, M. Cobb, C. Carver, "Identifying Top Java Errors for Novice Programmers", 35th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conf., Indianapolis IN, Oct 2005, T4C-24 -- 27.

[10]

Kolling and J. Rosenborg, BlueJ, http://www.bluej.org

[11]

T. Lukey, K. Loose, D.R. Hill, "Implementation of a debugging aid for logic errors in Pascal Programs", Proc. of SIGCSE 1987, St. Louis MO, 1987, 386--390.

Digital Library

[12]

R.F. Mathis, "Teaching Debugging", Proc. of SIGCSE 1974, 1974, 59--63.

Digital Library

[13]

C. Murphy et al., Columbia University Dept. of Computer Science tech report cucs-027--07, Sept. 2007.

[14]

E. Odekirk-Hash, J. Zachary, "Automated Feedback on Programs Means Students Need Less Help From Teachers", Proc. of SIGCSE 2001, Charlotte NC, 2001, 55-5-59.

Digital Library

[15]

B. Shneiderman, "Designing computer message systems", Communications of the ACM 25:9, Sept 1982, 610--611.

Digital Library

[16]

J. Wilson, "A Socratic approach to helping novice programmers debug programs", Proc. of SIGCSE 1987, St. Louis MO, 1987, 179--182.

Digital Library

[17]

http://www.eclipse.org

[18]

http://www.gnu.org/software/ddd/

[19]

http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/tools/windows/jdb.html

[20]

http://www.jgrasp.com

Cited By

Taipalus TGrahn H(2023)Framework for SQL Error Message Design: A Data-Driven ApproachACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/360718033:1(1-50)Online publication date: 23-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3607180
Becker BDenny PPettit RBouchard DBouvier DHarrington BKamil AKarkare AMcDonald COsera PPearce JPrather JRößling GGiannakos MScharlau BMcDermott RPears ASabin M(2019)Compiler Error Messages Considered UnhelpfulProceedings of the Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3344429.3372508(177-210)Online publication date: 18-Dec-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3344429.3372508
Luxton-Reilly ASimon Albluwi IBecker BGiannakos MKumar AOtt LPaterson JScott MSheard JSzabo CRößling GScharlau B(2018)Introductory programming: a systematic literature reviewProceedings Companion of the 23rd Annual ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3293881.3295779(55-106)Online publication date: 2-Jul-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3293881.3295779
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Backstop: a tool for debugging runtime errors
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

Recommendations

Backstop: a tool for debugging runtime errors
SIGCSE 08

The errors that Java programmers are likely to encounter can roughly be categorized into three groups: compile-time (semantic and syntactic), logical, and runtime (exceptions). While much work has focused on the first two, there are very few tools that ...
Efficient Java exception handling in just-in-time compilation
Research Articles

Java uses exceptions to provide elegant error handling capabilities during program execution. However, the presence of exception handlers complicates the job of the just-in-time (JIT) compiler, while exceptions are rarely used in most programs. This ...
A catalogue of bug patterns for exception handling in aspect-oriented programs
PLoP '08: Proceedings of the 15th Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs

Aspects allow a developer to externally add new functionality to a program. This additional functionality may also throw new exceptions that will flow through the program execution until they are handled. Moreover, aspects can also be used to handle ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

SIGCSE '08: Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education

March 2008

606 pages

ISBN:9781595937995

DOI:10.1145/1352135

General Chairs:
J. D. Dougherty
Haverford College
,
Susan Rodger
Duke University
,
Program Chairs:
Sue Fitzgerald
Metropolitan State University
,
Mark Guzdial
Georgia Institute of Technology

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 40, Issue 1
SIGCSE 08
March 2008
549 pages
ISSN:0097-8418
DOI:10.1145/1352322
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2008 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 12 March 2008

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

SIGCSE '08

Sponsor:

SIGCSE '08: The 39th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

March 12 - 15, 2008

OR, Portland, USA

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%

Upcoming Conference

SIGCSE Virtual 2024

Sponsor:
sigcse

1st ACM Virtual Global Computing Education Conference

December 5 - 8, 2024

Virtual Event , NC , USA

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

16
Total Citations
View Citations
459
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)14
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)1

Reflects downloads up to 14 Nov 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Taipalus TGrahn H(2023)Framework for SQL Error Message Design: A Data-Driven ApproachACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/360718033:1(1-50)Online publication date: 23-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3607180
Becker BDenny PPettit RBouchard DBouvier DHarrington BKamil AKarkare AMcDonald COsera PPearce JPrather JRößling GGiannakos MScharlau BMcDermott RPears ASabin M(2019)Compiler Error Messages Considered UnhelpfulProceedings of the Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3344429.3372508(177-210)Online publication date: 18-Dec-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3344429.3372508
Luxton-Reilly ASimon Albluwi IBecker BGiannakos MKumar AOtt LPaterson JScott MSheard JSzabo CRößling GScharlau B(2018)Introductory programming: a systematic literature reviewProceedings Companion of the 23rd Annual ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3293881.3295779(55-106)Online publication date: 2-Jul-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3293881.3295779
Coenen JGross SPinkwart N(2017)Comparison of Feedback Strategies for Supporting Programming Learning in Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)Advanced Computational Methods for Knowledge Engineering10.1007/978-3-319-61911-8_7(72-83)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2017
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61911-8_7
Alshaigy BKamal SMitchell FMartin CAldea AGal-Ezer JSentance SVahrenhold J(2015)PILeTProceedings of the Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education10.1145/2818314.2818319(76-79)Online publication date: 9-Nov-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2818314.2818319
Carter EBlank G(2014)Debugging tutorJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/2544322.254433429:3(58-64)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2544322.2544334
Sheard JSimon SHamilton MLönnberg JClancy MCaspersen MLister R(2009)Analysis of research into the teaching and learning of programmingProceedings of the fifth international workshop on Computing education research workshop10.1145/1584322.1584334(93-104)Online publication date: 10-Aug-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1584322.1584334
Murphy CKaiser GLoveland KHasan S(2009)RetinaACM SIGCSE Bulletin10.1145/1539024.150892941:1(178-182)Online publication date: 4-Mar-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1539024.1508929
Murphy CKaiser GLoveland KHasan SFitzgerald SGuzdial MLewandowski GWolfman S(2009)RetinaProceedings of the 40th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education10.1145/1508865.1508929(178-182)Online publication date: 4-Mar-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1508865.1508929
Tsan JWeintrop DFranklin DBecker BQuille KLaakso MBarendsen ESimon (2022)An Analysis of Middle Grade Teachers' Debugging Pedagogical Content KnowledgeProceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 110.1145/3502718.3524770(533-539)Online publication date: 7-Jul-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3502718.3524770
Show More Cited By

View Options

Get Access

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Table of Contents