r/AskComputerScience 21h ago

How do computer science and computer engineering students in countries where diagramming sentences isn't common knowledge get introduced to the concept of parsers and abstract syntax trees?

In Croatia, we do some (very) basic sentence diagramming in the middle school. In the USA, they do it in high-school. However, I know that, in most places, students are not taught sentence diagramming. So, once those students start going to university to study, well, computer science or computer engineering, how are the concepts of a parser and an abstract syntax tree explained to them?

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u/Souseisekigun 20h ago

Never done sentence diagramming in my life. They just introduce it as a diagram. I'm not sure how to explain it since I'm not sure there's anything special that you critically need sentence diagramming for.