Teaching Linked Lists: Influence of Language on Instruction
Chaya Gurwitz · Computer Science Education · 1999
Basic to any data structures course is the introduction of linked lists, their applications and implementations. In this paper we trace the evolution of the exposition of linked lists, as influenced by the language of instruction. We found that while the node pool implementation of linked lists was originally prominently discussed, the current trend is to present only the pointer-based implementation. We feel that the shift toward object-oriented programming should not preclude a presentation of various implementations. We present our own approach to introducing linked list implementations, in which the pointer-based implementation is used to motivate the node pool approach, using pointers to implement the node pool.