Compilers and Interpreters

Aim

The aim of this course is to give a basic introduction to the theoretical and practical issues underlying the design and implementation of compilers. After the completion of the course you should be able to:

• explain and apply fundamental principles and techniques of compiler design
• explain and use methods for lexical analysis, top-down and bottom-up parsing
• explain and use methods for basic semantic analysis and syntax-directed translation
• construct and implement a top-down parser for a given context-free grammar,
• use a generator to build a lexical analyzer, apply a parser generator, and
• implement simple intermediate code generation from abstract syntax trees

Content

Different types of translators such as compilers and preprocessors. Grammars and formal languages. Lexical and syntax analysis. Intermediate code generation. The course also gives a brief introduction to: Memory management and run-time organization. Code generation and code optimization. Basic usage of compiler construction tools. Criteria for language design. The labs contain exercises in hand-implementation and usage of tools for construction of smaller parts of a compiler, such as lexer, parser, generation of intermediate code.