Tartare: Automatic Generation of C Pointer Statements and Feedback

This paper addresses the difficulties students face when learning and practicing pointers (i.e., variables storing the memory address of another variable as its value) in a computer programming class. To improve their understanding and practice, we have developed Tartare, an automatic C pointer statement and feedback generator. By creating statements with automatic feedback, students are given the opportunity to practice at will, each time on a different instance. In addition, if the statement must be done remotely and accounts in the final grade, Tartare discourages academic dishonesty since each student faces their own statement to solve. This paper describes the techniques implemented in Tartare, relying on a pattern template-based approach. The statement variety of Tartare is evaluated. Finally, current limitations and further improvements are discussed. We believe our approach for Tartare can be transposed for automatic exercises generation in various other fields.