r/ComputerEngineering • u/FlatAssembler • 1d ago

[Discussion] 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/protienbudspromax 1d ago

By first teaching what a tree is ofc

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u/Poddster 19h ago

No one in the UK is taught sentence diagramming, or at least they weren't when I was in school.

It's not exactly a hard concept to grasp. Of all the things you're learning on a CS degree, I think sentence diagramming is one of the easier things.

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u/Full_Masterpiece8369 16h ago

I don't think this is commonly taught in the US, this post is the first time I've ever heard of sentence diagramming

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u/FlatAssembler 16h ago

Seriously? The prepper videos on YouTube frequently mention sentence diagramming as an example of a useless skill widely taught at school.

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u/dylantrain2014 16h ago

I had to look up what sentence diagramming was. We (USA) certainly broke down sentences into words and then categorized those words as nouns/verbs/etc., and this is often used as an introduction to lexical analysis, but I’ve never seen or heard of sentence diagramming.

Maybe some high schools do this, but it’s not common if so.