A Design Recipe and Recipe-Based Errors for Regular Expressions
Abstract
This article presents a novel framework to provide Formal Languages and Automata Theory students design support for the development of regular expressions. This framework includes a design recipe for regular expressions and a customized error messaging system. The error messaging system produces recipe-based errors that include the step of the design recipe not successfully completed. Furthermore, the error messages follow the established practices of being concise, succinct, jargon-free, and nonprescriptive. In addition, a shorthand syntax developed for writing unit tests is described. The in-class use of the design recipe is illustrated, two debugging sessions using the described system are discussed, and the implementation of the error messaging system is briefly sketched.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2508.03639,
title = {A Design Recipe and Recipe-Based Errors for Regular Expressions},
author = {Marco T. Morazán and Shamil Dzhatdoyev and Josephine Des Rosiers and Tijana Minić and Andrés M. Garced and David Anthony K. Fields},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.03639},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
In Proceedings TFPiE 2025, arXiv:2508.02305