Automating Code Quality Feedback in an Introductory Undergraduate Computer Science Course
Writing high-quality code is one of the most important skills for programmers, affecting how easy a codebase is to work with, both for the original creator and any future editors. Since it is so im- portant, many undergraduate programs will begin teaching code quality, sometimes referred to as style, in their introductory com- puter science courses. However, grading code quality by hand is a long and intensive process that takes away valuable teaching assistant time that could be spent directly working with student. We explore an approach to automating this process by creating a code quality checker program specifically designed for beginners to be used on code written by students in a first undergraduate computer science course. In designing this program, we hope to give speedy, detailed, and specific feedback on student’s code; so, they can practice writing good code in real time and internalize the rules of code quality.