Anthony Estevez Misconceptions by Estevez, Anthony M.

What is a programming language

anthonyestevez — 2025-10-13 20:28:44 UTC

Students who are typically at the very early stage of their computer science journey are taught that they need to learn a programming language. They are typically defined a programming language through examples. The instructor might list languages like C, C++, C#, Java, Python, etc.. However, students may not realize precisely what a programming language is and how they compare in existence to other key concepts such as a compiler, an IDE or code editor, and such systems. Programming languages are simply standards managed by some party (could be a group of people or simply one person) which defines the behavior of the language, but does not define the implementation of it. A compiler for a specific language implements a language's specification, creating programs from text documents that contain programming language code.

Pooling Definitions

anthonyestevez — 2025-10-13 20:34:28 UTC

Create a set of definitions provided by the students. Each definition that is added will be scrutinized by the other students, who will give their reasons as to why/why not the said definition is accurate/inaccurate.

For each definition, a counter argument will be given. For instance, if a student says "a programming language is a set of instructions to make a program", a counter would be "would a set of instructions to making a PBJ sandwich be a programming language?". This would continue until we narrow down into what a compiler is vs. a programming language, discussing their relationship and what each are responsible for.

Create your own language

anthonyestevez — 2025-10-13 20:38:13 UTC

The classroom will collaborate while creating a mini programming language to demonstrate what type of work is required to develop them. Certain behaviors will be outlined as enforced/not enforced, and we will create a standards sheet together as a class. We will explicitly avoid any and all behaviors associated with building/compiling/linking to make it clear what a programming language is and what it is not.

Exit Survey Question

anthonyestevez — 2025-10-13 20:39:11 UTC

Google form where students will be asked what is a programming language in their own words along with a question regarding what a programming language is responsible for vs. what it is not responsible for.

The Equals sign

anthonyestevez — 2025-10-13 20:55:38 UTC

Students that are just starting their computer science journey often bring information from math into the computer science word. One of these instances is the use of the equals sign. The equal sign has a very particular, distinct definition in computer science and mathematics. In math, the equal sign represent equality of two expressions, meaning they can be interchanged. However, in computer science, the equal sign typically represents assignment of a value to a variable (a programming variable, distinct from a mathematics variable).

Example/Non-Example

anthonyestevez — 2025-10-13 20:57:29 UTC

Writing examples of usage with the assignment operator (equals sign) and then asking students to categorize the example in either an example or non-example of the computer science equals sign.