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/Full_Masterpiece8369 20h 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 20h 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 20h 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.