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Teaching Compiler Development

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Published:01 January 1979Publication History
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Abstract

Although a course in Compiler Development is common in both undergraduate and graduate computer science curriculum there has been little agreement on how to achieve a balance between theory and practice within a single semester course. This article proposes a new approach to teaching compiler development, to enable students to gain both the experience of writing a modular compiler and a theoretical background in compiler design, within the scope of a one semester course.

The approach advocated is based upon the integration of the course project and the course lectures, enabling students to develop a modular compiler for a general purpose high level algorithmic language. The course project uses a simple parser generator and syntax-directed translation techniques to minimize the programming effort without oversimplifying the design of the compiler.

The course was taught at Southern Methodist University to a senior undergraduate class, who developed and debugged useable compilers without the common symptom of major programming projects: programming to meet a deadline rather than a design.

References

  1. 1 Ahmad, S.I, Design and Use of Instructional Tools for Computer Science SIGCSE Bulletin. 10:1 (1978 February), pp. 1-6. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  2. 2 Aho, A.V., and Uhlmann, J.D. Principles of Compiler Design. Addison-Wesley, 1977. 604p. {ISBN O- 201-00022-9} Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  3. 3 Austing, R.H., et. al. Curriculum Recommendations for the undergraduate Program in Computer Science. SIGCSE Bulletin. 9:2 (1977 June), pp. 1-16. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  4. 4 Gries, D. Compiler Construction for Digital Computers. John Wiley, 1971 {ISBN 0-471-32776-X}. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  5. 5 Nori, K.V., Amman, U., Jensen, K., and Nageli, H.H. "The PASCAL 'P" Compiler: Implementation Notes". Technical Report Number 10, Berichte des Instituts fur Informatik, Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule, Zurich, 1974 December. 57p.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  6. 6 Shapiro, H.D., and Mickunas, M.D. A New Approach to Teaching a First Course in Compiler Construction. SIGCSE Bulletin. 8:2 (1976 February), pp. 158-166. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library

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  1. Teaching Compiler Development

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          cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin
          ACM SIGCSE Bulletin  Volume 11, Issue 1
          Proceedings of the 10th SIGCSE symposium on Computer science education
          February 1979
          251 pages
          ISSN:0097-8418
          DOI:10.1145/953030
          Issue’s Table of Contents
          • cover image ACM Conferences
            SIGCSE '79: Proceedings of the tenth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
            January 1979
            251 pages
            ISBN:9781450374316
            DOI:10.1145/800126

          Copyright © 1979 ACM

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          Association for Computing Machinery

          New York, NY, United States

          Publication History

          • Published: 1 January 1979

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