1. Programming Language Translation
Jamie McAtamney

2. Introduction Purpose: to write a fully functional translator
C to Java
Hasn’t been done before
Java some advantages over C:
Easier to write Java (idiot-proof)‏
More portable
Scope: as wide as possible
Currently have all the “basics”
Need to do struct translation, pointers, graphics

3. Background Similar research
Jazillian pay-per-program translation company
Terekhov & Verhoef’s paper on translation difficulties
Lili Qiu's paper on procedural vs. object-oriented languages

4. Methodology Approach Everything is modular
Have modules for different translations
Have “translate()” methods to coordinate everything
Have separate programs to handle appearance of code
Aspects of C closest to Java translated first
Saved memory manipulation for last

5. Methodology Translation algorithm Formatting Tokenization
Remove programming idiosyncrasies
Tokenization
Keywords and punctuation
Keyword search-replace
Ex: char* → String
Context-sensitive search
Ex: printf(“\n”); → System.out.println();

6. Methodology Finished Timeline In Progress Coming “Soon” Coming Maybe
Primitive types
Arrays
Method headers
Input/output
Preprocessor directives
Two-pass translator
Timeline
In Progress
Package methods
Coming “Soon”
Structs → Classes
Pointers
Graphics
Coming Maybe
Computer-to-computer communication

7. Methodology Testing & Analysis Testing old C programs
Have a few “fake” programs to test particular modules
Script to do testing
Added another translator to traverse Java program a second time

8. Methodology Problems: Can't move “backwards” for writing to Java file
Solved with two-pass translator
Some C methods “overloaded” in Java
Ex: PrintStream append() and print()‏

9. Progress Results Thus Far Program is error-free
All implemented areas fully translated
Translator outputs compilable and runnable program

10. Progress Analysis Where to go from here Ahead of schedule
Didn't expect to get to structs and pointers before end of 3rd quarter
Didn't expect output of compilable and runnable program until 3rd quarter
Graphics will be much easier than I originally thought
Where to go from here
Will try Java to C if I finish by beginning of 4th quarter