Recursion and grammars for CS2

A programming exercise on recursion in which students create drawings of simple and bracketed Lindenmayer Systems provides a context for exploring additional computer science concepts. The resulting drawings give students a better understanding of the power of recursion as well as the rate of growth of time complexity with multiple successive recursive calls. We describe the exercise, the concepts that need to be addressed to solve the problems, and the results of using this exercise in our classes.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1997
• Where: ITICSE
• Authors: Viera K. Proulx
• Keywords: Bracketed Lindenmayer Systems, ITICSE 1997, Students Create Drawings, Successive Recursive Calls, Theoretical Computer Science