1. Compiler Structures 0. Preliminaries
, Semester 2,
0. Preliminaries
Please ask
questions
Who I am: Andrew Davison CoE, Info. Eng. Research Lab (WiG Lab)
Objective
to give some background on the course

2. Overview
1. Why Study Compilers? 2. Course Objectives 3. Prerequisites 4. Meeting Time / Location 5. Workload 6. Course Materials 7. Further Information

3. 1. Why Study Compilers?
Compilers use techniques from many areas of Comp. Eng.
These include:
data structures & algorithms
formal languages (e.g. REs, grammars)
computer architecture
programming language design

4. Compiler-related Tools are Everywhere
Editors (syntax highlighting)
Small languages (e.g. game scripting)
Pretty printers (e.g. doxygen)
Static checkers (e.g. lint)
Text formatters (e.g. LaTeX)
Silicon compilers (e.g. VHDL)
Query interpreters/compilers (databases)

5. 2. Course Objectives By the end of the course, a student will:
Know how to build a compiler for a (very simplified) C-like programming language.
Know how to use compiler construction tools, such as generators for scanners and parsers.
continued

6. Be able to write LL(1) and LALR(1) grammars (for new languages).
Be familiar with code generation.
Be familiar with virtual machines.

7. Main Topics Lexical Analysis (lex) Syntax Analysis Attribute Grammars
top-down, bottom-up (yacc)
Attribute Grammars
Semantic Analysis (parse trees)
Intermediate Code Generation
for expressions and loops

8. 3. Prerequistes
You must have passed “Computer Programming Techniques” or something similar
this subject requires you to have a good knowledge of C/C++
all the code examples are in C, on Linux

9. 4. Meeting Time / Location
?? ??– ?? ??
In the first 1-2 weeks of semester, you can ask me to change the meeting times
a majority of the class must agree

10. Non-Attendence Penalty
I may take registration at the start of a class.
If someone is not there, they lose 1% (unless they have a good excuse).
A maximum of 10% can be lost
deducted from your final mark

11. 5. Workload (% of total score)
4 Exercises: 50% total
Exercise 1 (lexical), week 4, 10%
Exercise 2 (syntax), week 7, 10%
Exercise 3 (semantics), week 13, 15%
Exercise 4 (parse trees), week 15, 15%
continued

12. Mid-term exam: 25% (2 hours)
week 9
Final exam: 25% (3 hours)
weeks 17-18

13. 6. Course Materials I will only hand out the exercises.
Print out and
BRING TO CLASS.
I will only hand out the exercises.
All the handouts (and other materials, such as code examples) will be placed on-line at
Software.coe/Compilers/

14. Textbooks
In our library
Compilers: Principles, Techniques and Tools by Aho, Sethi, and Ullman Addison-Wesley
Lex and Yacc by Levine, Mason, and Brown O'Reilly; 2nd edition

15. 7. Further Information awesome-compilers Let's Build a Compiler
list of learning materials, tools, frameworks, technologies and code projects
awesome-compilers
Let's Build a Compiler
by Jack Crenshaw
a good, less technical introduction to compiler construction