File Lectures.html    Author McKeeman    Copyright © 2007    index

A Short Course in Compilers

These lectures are designed for a 10-session class. It is assumed that the students know MATLAB and elementary mathematics.

The planned lecture format is an hour of lecture followed by an hour of in-class lab work. The details follow. If a project is going to be attempted, it should be done simultaneously.

Lecture 1 (overheads)

• Hello, Course Objectives, Schedule (10 min)
• A very simple compiler (5 min)
• Getting a personal copy of xcom. (10 min)
• Learning X (25 min)

Lab 1

• Students as QE (5 min)
• Read the X Reference Manual (10 min)
• Practice Writing X and Running xcom (25 min)
• Using xcom flags for dumps and traces (10 min)

Lecture 2 (overheads)

• OO Programming Model (5 min)
• Structure of xcom (10 min)
• Grammars for programming languages (35 min)
  • Notation
  • Context-free Grammars
  • CFG for X

Lab 2

• Changing the xcom Cfg object (10 min)
• Look at the Cfg tables (20 min)
• Look at intermediate Cfg output (20 min)

Lecture 3 (overheads)

• Changing the xcom Lexer (10 min)
• Lexing a programming language (10 min)
• Regular Expressions (10 min)
• Regular Expression Grammars (20 min)

Lab 3

• Try many examples like
  >> xcom -lexDump x:=1
• Add a unit test to testLexer.m (30 min)
• Add abs to X (in X.cfg) (20 min)
• Challenge: write a faster lexer. Hint: use MATLAB profiler.

Lecture 4 (overheads)

• Changing the xcom top-down Parser (10 min)
• Parsing a programming language (40 min)

Lab 4

• Try many examples like
  >> xcom -parseTrace x:=1
  >> xcom -parseTrace -bottomUp x:=1
• Add a unit test to testParser.m (20 min)
• Add abs to X (in Parser.m) (30 min)
• Challenge: compare speeds of bottom up vs. top down parsing

Lecture 5 (overheads)

• Syntax Trees (20 min)
• Changing the xcom symbol table (10 min)
• Symbol Tables (20 min)

Lab 5

• Try many examples like
  >> xcom -treeTrace x:=1
  >> xcom -treeTrace -noAST x:=1
• Try many examples like
  >> xcom -symTrace x:=1
• Add a unit test to testTree.m (5 min)
• Add a unit test to testSymbols.m (15 min)
• Adding abs to X (in Symbols.m) (30 min)
• Challenge: Rewrite Symbols.m so that it uses hash lookup.

Lecture 6 (overheads)

• Machine Language (20 min)
• Runtime (20 min)
• Changing Runtime (5 min)
• >> xcom -interactive x/pi.x (5 min)
• Changing the Intel emulator (5 min)

Lab 6

• Try many examples like
  >> xcom -asmTrace x:=1
  >> xcom -asmTrace -exeTrace x:=1
• Add abs to X (in AsmX86.m) (15 min)
• Add a unit test to testAsmX86.m (20 min)
• Add a unit test to testEmulate.m (20 min)
• Challenge: Implement AsmA64.m

Lecture 7 (overheads)

• Emitting CPU Instructions (40 min)
• Changing the xcom code emitter (10 min)

Lab 7

• Try many examples like
  >> xcom -asmTrace -emitTrace x:=1
• Add a unit test to testEmitX86.m (20 min)
• Add abs to X (in EmitX86.m) (30 min)
• Challenge: Implement EmitA64.m (Intel 64-bit)

Lecture 8 (overheads)

• Synthesis of Sequential Semantics (30 min)
• Changing the xcom generator (10 min)
• Summary: the Big Picture (10 min)

Lab 8

• Try many examples like
  >> xcom -asmTrace -emitTrace -genTrace x:=1
• Add a unit test to testGenerator.m (20 min)
• Add abs to X (in Generator.m) (30 min)

Lecture 9 (overheads)

• Tradeoffs between interpreters, JITs and production compilers (20 min)
• Conventional Optimization Strategies (30 min)

Lab 9

• Implement Constant Folding for X as a peephole

Lecture 10

• Finite Automata (20 min)
• LR Parsing (30 min)

Final Exam

• The Questions.
• The Answers.