CSC402/CSC502 Homepage

Programming Language Implementation

Fall 2017

Instructor:

Dr. Lutz Hamel
Tyler Hall Rm 251
Office hours: Monday/Wednesday 11am-noon Tyler Rm 251
email: hamel@cs.uri.edu

TA:

Na Li
Office Hours: Tuesday/Friday 1:00-2:00
Tyler room 136
email: na_li@uri.edu

Announcements:

[11/20/17] *** Final Project due Sunday 12/17 in Sakai ***
[10/25/17] *** Midterm due Monday 11/6 in Sakai ***
Announcements are now handled thru Sakai

[9/5/17] Welcome!

Description:

Have you ever wondered how the syntax highlighter in Eclipse works?
Have you ever wondered how languages like PHP and HTML are implemented?
How about Python and Pearl?
Or for that matter, Java and JavaScript?
What is the difference between interpreting a programming language and translating/compiling it?
What is the difference between an interpreter and a virtual machine?

If any of these questions interest you then CSC402 is for you. We will spend the semester looking at programming language implementations: from syntax highlighters to code analyzers, from interpreters and virtual machines to compilers.

As part of the course we will construct interpreters and translators for domain specific languages such as calculator languages and command line languages for steering your favorite game character. The course will also include one large semester project of a language implementation project of your choosing. This could be a graphics language, a new programming language (think Ruby), a domain specific language such as PHP or a new command line shell interpreter for Unix/DOS.

The goal of the course is to give you a solid foundation with respect to programming language implementation which includes grammar construction, parsing techniques, intermediate representations, tree construction, tree pattern matching techniques, among many other topics. The course is designed around a set of programming language implementation design patterns that shed light on the overall construction of programming language processors. These tools will enable you to add domain specific and general programming language implementations to your tool chest to solve difficult engineering problems. NOTE: Students taking this course for graduate credit (CSC502) will have to complete an additional Unix/Linux based project.

Final Project Ideas

When I say implementation that could mean: as an interpreter, as a compiler to a virtual machine, or as a compiler to actual machine code.

An implementation of a subset of a game scripting language such as Lua or Pawn.
An implementation of a subset of C (e.g. Small-C or Tiny-C) or any other general purpose programming language.
Design and implement a language to program cellular automata (CA).
Design and implement a language interface to the JMusic framework.
Design and implement an interpreter for a graphics/drawing language, e.g. Logo.
Implement an interpreter or compiler for Vintage Basic (Altair Basic).

Documents of Interest:

A nice Jupyter Notebook tutorial, here is a link to the zip file of the notebook we developed in class.
Linux Appliance for VirtualBox (Warning: 3+GBytes!)
Syllabus
Lecture Notes
Online Book

NOTE: email submissions are not acceptable for assignments.

Assignments and Projects:

Assignment #0: due Wed. 9/13, read the syllabus and upload a copy of it in Sakai.
Assignment #1: due on Sunday 9/24 in Sakai.
Assignment #2 - due on Sunday 10/1.
Assignment #3 - due on Sunday 10/8.
Assignment #4 - due on Wednesday 10/18.
Assignment #5 - due on Sunday 10/30.
Assignment #6 - due on Sunday 11/12. A working version of the abstract stack machine can be found here
Final Project Proposal - due Thursday 11/16.
Graduate Credit Project - due Sunday 12/10.
Assignment #7 - due on Sunday 12/3.