Tracing COBOL programs- What can your students gain?
Henry A. Etlinger · RIT Scholar Works (Rochester Institute of Technology) · 1981
In many introductory programming courses, students are urged to trace programs in a textbook to see if they understand how the programs work. In addition, students may have to trace simple programs on a test (a typical question calls for a display of a program's output). As a student confronts more and more complex language features, and as examples become more lengthy, the tracing idea seems to fall by the wayside. We expect a student to understand complex programs, but we don't seem to offer any practical guidance about how this understanding may be achieved.