Osiris: A Multilanguage Transpiler for Educational Purposes

Abstract

While server-side assessment of programming exercises, with its ease of installing diverse compilers and execution environments, is common, it presents three key limitations: the necessity of a constant Internet connection, increased bandwidth consumption, and centralized execution load. The alternative is to rely on JavaScript, the single programming language supported by all standard web browsers.

This dissertation introduces Osiris, a pure JavaScript multi-language transpiler designed to enable the execution of diverse programming languages within web browsers. Targeted primarily at Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) for programming education, Osiris employs a parser generator to translate small student programs into JavaScript based on language-specific grammars with semantic rules. It includes a comprehensive JavaScript library that emulates the standard libraries of its supported languages, along with capabilities to execute transpiled code safely and communicate input/output and errors with a terminal-like interface.

Validation of Osiris through both offline analysis of high school student programs and online evaluation using a VLE demonstrates the pedagogical effectiveness of browserbased transpilation.