Vary: An IDE for designing algorithms and measuring quality

Abstract

Pseudocode is one of the recommended methods for teaching students to design algorithms. Having a tool that performs the automatic translation of an algorithm into pseudocode to a programming language would allow the student to understand the complete process of program development. In addition, the introduction of quality measurement of algorithms designed from the first steps of learning programming would enable the student to understand the importance of code quality for maintenance of software processes. This work describes Vary, an integrated development environment based on Eclipse for writing and running pseudocode algorithms. The environment automatically transforms abstract pseudocode into runnable C/C++ source code that can be later executed. Computer programming learners and even computational scientists can use Vary to write and run algorithms, while taking advantage of modern development environment features. Vary is provided with an additional extension to automatically carry out algorithm analysis with SonarQube.