COMS W4115 Programming Languages and Translators


	COMS W4115 Programming Languages and Translators Spring 2006 (CVN)

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Project

Staff

name	email
Prof. Stephen Edwards	sedwards@cs.columbia.edu

Please begin email subject lines with [COMS 4115]

Overview

The goal of PLT is to teach you both about the structure of computer programming languages and the basics of implementing compilers for such languages.

The course will focus mostly on traditional imperative and object-oriented languages, but will also cover functional and logic programming, concurrency issues, and some aspects of scripting languages. Homework and tests will cover language issues. You will design and implement a language of your own design in a semester-long group project.

While few of you will ever implement a full commercial compiler professionally, the concepts, techniques, and tools you will learn have broad application.

Prerequisites

Java fluency: You will be writing a large Java program and must know the language well.

COMS W3157 Advanced Programming: You will be dividing into teams to build a compiler, so you need to have some idea how to keep this under control. Quick test: you need to know about Makefiles and source code control systems.

COMS W3261 Computability and Models of Computation: You will need an understanding of formal languages and grammar to build the parser and lexical analyzer. Quick test: you must know about regular expressions, context-free grammars, and NFAs.

Schedule

Date	Lecture	Reading	Due
January 17	Intro. to Languages	Ch. 1, 2
January 19	Language Design
January 24	Language Processors
January 26	Scripting Languages
January 31	Syntax and Parsing	Ch 3, 4
February 2	"
February 7	GL: Security		White Paper
February 9	GL: Parsing
February 14	Getting it right (taped)
February 16	ANTLR		HW1
February 21	ASTs	Ch. 4
February 23	Small Examples	Ch. 11, 12
February 28	Names, Scope, and Bindings
March 2	"		LRM
March 7	Control-flow
March 9	"
March 13-17	Spring Break
March 21	Midterm review
March 23	Midterm
March 28	Types	Ch. 6
March 30	"
April 4	Code Generation	Ch. 8, 9
April 6	Logic Programming
April 11	Functional Programming
April 13	"		HW2
April 25	Review for final
April 27	Final Exam
May 9	Project reports due

Required Text

Alfred V. Aho, Ravi Sethi, and Jeffrey D. Ullman.
Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools.
Addison-Wesley, 1985.

Long the standard text on compilers, the ``dragon book'' is now a little dated. It remains one of the more readable books on the topic, and is written by our own Prof. Al Aho.

Optional Texts

Cover of Programming Language Pragmatics

Michael L. Scott.
Programming Language Pragmatics
Morgan Kaufmann, 2000

A broad-minded book about languages in general, but has less on practical details of compiler construction.

Andrew W. Appel.
Modern Compiler Implementation in Java.
Cambridge University Press, 1998.

The opposite of Scott: focuses on compiler construction, not language design issues.

Steven S. Muchnick
Advanced Compiler Design and Implementation.
Morgan Kaufmann, 1997.

A very extensive book on many aspects of compiler design. Starts about halfway through Appel and goes much farther. Recommended for serious compiler hackers only.

Class Policies

Grading

40 % Project
20 % Midterm
30 % Final
10 % Homework

Collaboration

You may not collaborate with others on homeworks. Any two students found submitting similar code will receive zero credit for the whole assignment, and repeat offenses will be referred to the dean. See Columbia academic policies for more details.

Late Policy

Zero credit for anything handed in after it is due without explicit approval of the instructor.

Updated Sun Feb 12 20:57:59 EST 2006