Course Description

Fundamental concepts of languages. Processors, data, operations, sequence control, data control, storage management, syntax, translation. Prerequisite: CS 2170 and CS 3350.

Course Syllabus

1. Introductory Concepts
   1. The Nature of Systems Software
   2. Types of Language Translation Systems
   3. Language Specification
   4. Backus-Naur Form
   5. Summary of Language Design Concepts
2. Compilers
   1. Token Representation (Internal Compiler Code)
   2. Lexical Scan
   3. Number Conversion
   4. Name Declaration
   5. Code Generation
   6. Types of Compilers
   7. Table Compression Algorithms
3. Implementation of Specific Language Features
   1. Arithmetic Expressions
   2. Procedure calls
   3. Parameter passing: by value, by reference, by name, by value/result
   4. Recursion and Reentrancy
   5. Multi-dimensional arrays (including subscript mapping functions)
   6. Control structures (if/then/else, case, while, etc.)
4. Error Analysis and Debugging Aids
   1. Error Detection
   2. Error Repair
   3. Error Correction strategies (e.g. spelling correction)
   4. Implementation strategies for symbolic debuggers
   5. Code trace and variable trace alternatives
5. Symbol Table Organization
   1. Hashing, Linear, Binary, Linked Lists
   2. Considerations for block-structured languages and various scope rule conventions
6. Role of Linker
   1. Linker responsibilities
   2. Special requirements for object-oriented languages (such as name mangling)
7. Code Optimization
   1. Introduction to data flow analysis
   2. Introduction to program flow analysis
   3. Specific optimization algorithms (both machine-independent and machine-specific)
8. Differences between Compilers and Interpreters

Course Project