Compiler Construction – D7011E
Lp3 2012

Course aim

The student shall be able to

• describe compilation of a high level language into executable machine code as a translation process
  in multiple stages
• implement a compiler for a non-trivial language
• master some common theoretical as well as practical tools for compiler construction
• examplify the interplay between language design and implementation technique for modern high
  level languages.
  

Course content

• Basic design of a compiler as a multi-phase translation process
• Lexical analysis
• Syntax analysis
• Translation into abstract syntax
• Identifier handling and symbol table organization
• Type-checking
• Intermediate representations and transformations for different languages
• Code optimization and register allocation
• Machine code generation for various architectures

Official description in the course catalog.

Lecturer

Viktor Leijon
Phone: 070 280 99 97
Email:

Examiner

Johan Nordlander
Phone: 070 6207461
Email:

Literature

Alfred V. Aho, Monica S. Lam, Ravi Sethi, Jeffrey D. Ullman.
Compilers: principles, techniques and tools(2nd ed.),
Addison Wesley, 2007, ISBN: 0321486811.

Previously we used the following book, and if you happen to already own, it also covers all of the
important material:

Andrew W. Appel with Jens Palsberg
Modern compiler implementation in Java.
Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition, 2002.
ISBN: 0-521-82060-X.

Schedule

Viw the on-line schedule information.

Written exam: October 31, 2012 (5 hours)
Makeup exam: May 6, 2013

Lecture notes

Programming project

• The project consists of a total of 6 steps which must all be carried out individually.
  
• Your project must pass the provided testsuite, which is set of Java files that your compiler must be able to correctly compile into machine code (code that, when executed, produces the same result as code generated by the standard Java compiler). In addition, your compiler must not accept any files in the set badsuite; instead a suitable error message should be displayed. Note: These tests are the first thing that will be tried on your compiler when you present your project anyway, so you should make sure your compiler complies before submitting.
  
• There are no scheduled lab hours for the programming project, but you are welcome to use the lab as often
  as there is space available (which should be most of the time). Be flexible!
  
• The default language for the project is Java. You may write your compiler in another language with permission from the teacher.
• Your project must be able to execute on the new linux machines for students, humla.sts.ltu.se. You can find the software you need under /software/, note that antlrworks also contains the libraries needed for running antlr from the command line.
• There are no scheduled supervision hours for the programming project; instead you are required to schedule
  supervision meetings when needed, by contacting your lecturer.
  
  

Step	Theme	Deadline
0	Warm-up: A simple calculator	Sept 13
1	Lexical analysis for MiniJava	Sept 24
2	Parsing MiniJava	Oct 8
3	MiniJava type-checking	Oct 12
4	Code generation	Oct 19
5	Optimization using LLVM	Oct 26

Example exams

Course evaluations