Pedagogical IDE for SMoL teaching language released with step-through execution and environment visualization

Smolts is an integrated development environment designed for SMoL, a pedagogical language aimed at teaching programming language concepts. The IDE allows users to write programs in an S-expression-based dialect of SMoL and step through their execution while visualizing the current continuation, environment, and store. This interactive approach is intended to help students or learners understand how programs evolve during execution, a common challenge in programming language education.

The tool includes features specifically tailored for educational use, such as the ability to step backward through execution, which is useful for reviewing missed details. It also supports "run to cursor", allowing users to execute code up to a specific point in the program. Inline annotations in the text editor display the values of variables and expressions, providing immediate feedback during execution. These features reduce the cognitive load on learners by making abstract concepts more concrete.

While Smolts is functional, its implementation is described as janky and half-complete, particularly in areas like Svelte state management and in-browser Git-based project management. The project is open-source, and the author invites contributions, feedback, or pull requests, suggesting it is more of a prototype or experimental tool than a polished product. Its current state may limit its immediate adoption in classrooms, but it offers a foundation for further development or adaptation by educators or engineers interested in pedagogical tools.

The IDE’s design is inspired by prior work, including Shriram Krishnamurthi et al.’s SMoL and Kuang-Chen Lu’s Stacker, indicating it builds on established ideas in programming language education. The author notes that while the tool has not yet been used in teaching, it was created with that purpose in mind. For engineers working on educational tools or teaching programming languages, Smolts provides an example of how to implement interactive, visualization-heavy environments for learning complex concepts.