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A statistical analysis of syntax errors

Published: 01 January 1978 Publication History

Abstract

A study of errors made by Pascal programmers is described. The results of this study are discussed in relation to compiler syntax error recovery procedures. It is found that syntax errors made in practice are quite simple and occur relatively infrequently (generally at most one per sentence of the language). Also a few types of errors account for most occurrences. These and other findings from the study are helpful in evaluating compiler error handling procedures. A discussion of the relation between these errors and language constructs is presented. Other uses of the information obtained from the study are briefly described.

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Cited By

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  • (2018)Syntax error recovery in parsing expression grammarsProceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing10.1145/3167132.3167261(1195-1202)Online publication date: 9-Apr-2018
  • (2015)Frequency distribution of error messagesProceedings of the 6th Workshop on Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools10.1145/2846680.2846681(1-8)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2015
  • (2012)Automated evaluation of syntax error recoveryProceedings of the 27th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering10.1145/2351676.2351736(322-325)Online publication date: 3-Sep-2012
  • Show More Cited By

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image Computer Languages
Computer Languages  Volume 3, Issue 4
January, 1978
62 pages

Publisher

Pergamon Press, Inc.

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 January 1978

Author Tags

  1. Error correction
  2. Error recovery
  3. Error repair
  4. Error-proneness
  5. Language design
  6. Syntax errors

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Cited By

View all
  • (2018)Syntax error recovery in parsing expression grammarsProceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing10.1145/3167132.3167261(1195-1202)Online publication date: 9-Apr-2018
  • (2015)Frequency distribution of error messagesProceedings of the 6th Workshop on Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools10.1145/2846680.2846681(1-8)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2015
  • (2012)Automated evaluation of syntax error recoveryProceedings of the 27th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering10.1145/2351676.2351736(322-325)Online publication date: 3-Sep-2012
  • (2002)Repairing syntax errors in LR parsersACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/586088.58609224:6(698-710)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2002
  • (2001)Error repair with validation in LR-based parsingACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/504083.50408423:4(451-471)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2001
  • (1999)Continuous grammarsProceedings of the 26th ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT symposium on Principles of programming languages10.1145/292540.292568(303-310)Online publication date: 1-Jan-1999
  • (1992)Four Dimensions of programming-language independenceACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/130854.13085927:3(35-53)Online publication date: 1-Mar-1992
  • (1982)Tailoring testing to a specific compiler—experiencesACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/872726.80699017:6(140-152)Online publication date: 1-Jun-1982
  • (1982)A forward move algorithm for LL and LR parsersACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/872726.80698217:6(79-87)Online publication date: 1-Jun-1982
  • (1982)Tailoring testing to a specific compiler—experiencesProceedings of the 1982 SIGPLAN symposium on Compiler construction10.1145/800230.806990(140-152)Online publication date: 23-Jun-1982
  • Show More Cited By

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