On teaching programming with nondeterminism

Abstract

Non-determinism (ND) is a fundamental concept in computer science, and comes in two main flavors. One is the kind of ND that appears in automata theory and formal languages. The other, which we term operative, appears in non-deterministic programming languages and in the context of concurrent and distributed systems. We believe that it is important to teach the two types of ND, especially as ND has become a very prominent characteristic of computerized systems. Currently, students are mainly introduced to ND of the first type, which is known to be hard to teach and learn. Our findings suggest that learning operative ND might be easier, and that students can reach a significant understanding of this concept when it is introduced in the context of a programming course that deals with a non-deterministic programming language like the language of Live Sequence Charts (LSC). Based on that, we suggest teaching operative ND in the context of concurrent and distributed programming, a topic which is covered by a new knowledge area that was added in Computer Science Curricula 2013.