CS75/E23: Compilers (spring 2009)

Schedule | Text | Grading | Projects | Late Work | Integrity | Class Resources
 
Professor: Tia Newhall
Time: TR: 11:20
Location: Science Center 264
Lab: F: 2-3:30, room 252
Office hours: Mondays 2-3pm and by appointment

Announcements

Final Exam: Tuesday May 12, 9am room 264 Sci. Center

Course Description

CS75 is an introduction to compiling. We will study techniques used in the design and implementation of modern compilers. Subjects include scanning and regular expressions, context-free grammars and parsing, syntax-directed translation, abstract syntax trees, scoping, symbol tables, code generation, and code optimization. To make many of these concepts more concrete we will write a complete compiler for a non-trivial subset of the C programming language.

Prerequisite: CPSC 035 and experience in C or C++ (usually satisfied by completing CPSC 33). If you have not used C or C++ in awhile, take a look at C programming references before the start of the semester.

Required Text

Schedule

The following schedule is tentative; it will be updated as we go along. I highly recommend doing the week's reading prior to the first class meeting of that week.

Grading

Grades will be weighted as follows:
55% Project lab assignments
10% Homework and class participation
15% Midterm
20% Final

Programming Project

The course project consists of several lab assignments that together implement a compiler for most of the C programming language. You will work with a partner on the project assignments.

About the CS Lab

The CS Lab (room 240) and the overflow lab (room 238) are open 24 hours a day for CS students to work on their course assignments. When the CS Lab is in use by a class, you should work in the overflow lab. If you have not already done so, give Jeff the microprox number on your student ID and he will enable your access to the lab and Science Center after hours using your ID: wave your ID in front of the microprox readers to gain entry to the CS Lab and the Science Center after building hours (use the door between Martin and Cornell to get into the building after midnight). Please read through the"Computer Lab Rules" under the "Introductions" section of the CS help pages.

Collaboration Tools

You should work with a partner on programming projects. To set up your development environment so that you and your partner can access your joint project files while still protecting them from others, see the following: Safe File Sharing for Group Projects.

You may want to use some type of revision control software to help you coordinate shared accesses to project files by you and your partner and to allow a way for you to back-up working versions of your code. I'd recommend using Subversion or CVS.

Submitting Lab Assignments

Lab assignments will be submitted on-line using cs75handin. You can submit the same assignment multiple times up to the due date using cs75handin. Once you have submitted your solution to an assignment, make sure to keep a copy of it that you will not modify after you submit it (this way if something goes wrong with cs75handin I can use the dates of your solution files to determine when you submitted your solution). Some lab assignments will include a demo. You will sign up for a demo slot during which you and your partner will run your solution for me with tests that demonstrate its correctness and its error handling capabilities.

Late Work Policy

Written homework assignments:

Homework assignments are due at the beginning of class on the due date. Late written homework assignments will not be accepted. However, it is still to your advantage to do written assignments even if you do not turn them in; they help reinforce your understanding of the lecture material and they are often typical of the types of questions you may see on exams.

Lab assignments:

You and your partner are allowed to use up to 3 late days this semester for turning in lab project assignments. However, at most 2 late days can be used on an individual assignment. One day late means turned in before the original time the assignment was due on the next day class meets. For example, if the original assignment is due on Tuesday before 1am, then if you submit it after Tuesday at 1am but before Thursday at 1am it is one day late.

Use late days wisely; once you have used up your late days, I reserve the right to not accept any further late assignments from you, and if I do accept further late assignments from you, you will receive a significant late penalty on them. I strongly recommend that you do not use any late days on the first two lab assignments.

CS Dept's Academic Integrity Policy

Under no circumstances may you hand in work done with (or by) someone else under your own name. Your code should never be shared with anyone; you may not examine or use code belonging to someone else, nor may you let anyone else look at or make a copy of your code. This includes sharing solutions after the due date of the assignment. Failure to abide by these rules constitutes academic dishonesty and will lead to a hearing of the College Judiciary Committee. According to the Faculty Handbook: "Because plagiarism is considered to be so serious a transgression, it is the opinion of the faculty that for the first offense, failure in the course and, as appropriate, suspension for a semester or deprivation of the degree in that year is suitable; for a second offense, the penalty should normally be expulsion."

Discussing ideas and approaches to problems with others on a general level is fine (in fact, we encourage you to discuss general strategies with each other), but with the exception of your project partner, you should never read anyone else's code or let anyone else read your code. If you are in doubt about some help that you received, then credit the person(s) from whom you got help by citing them in a comment at the top of the file and discuss the situation with your instructor.