Stephen A. Edwards Columbia University Crown
  COMS W4115
Programming Languages and Translators
Spring 2005 (CVN)
Home Project
 Staff
name email office hours location
Prof. Stephen Edwards sedwards@cs.columbia.edu T, Th 2-3 462 CSB
  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  Notes  Reading  Due 
January 18   Intro. to Languages   pdf   Ch. 1, 2      
January 20   Language Design   pdf        
January 25   Language Processors   pdf        
January 27   Scripting Languages   pdf        
February 1   Syntax and Parsing   pdf   Ch 3, 4      
February 3   "          
February 8   GL: Security   pdf     White Paper    
February 10   GL: Parsing          
February 15   Getting it right (taped)   pdf        
February 17   ANTLR   pdf     HW1 pdf    
February 22   ASTs   pdf   Ch. 4      
February 24   Small Examples   pdf   Ch. 11, 12      
March 1   Names, Scope, and Bindings   pdf        
March 3   "       LRM    
March 8   Control-flow   pdf        
March 10   "          
March 14-18   Spring Break  
March 22   Midterm review   pdf        
March 24   Midterm          
March 29   Types   pdf   Ch. 6      
March 31   "          
April 5   Code Generation   pdf   Ch. 8, 9      
April 7   Logic Programming   pdf        
April 12   Functional Programming   pdf        
April 14   "       HW2 pdf    
April 26   Review for final   pdf        
April 28   Final Exam          
May 10   Project reports due          
 Required Text
  Cover of the Dragon Book 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.
  Cover of Appel Andrew W. Appel.
Modern Compiler Implementation in Java.
Cambridge University Press, 1998.

The opposite of Scott: focuses on compiler construction, not language design issues.
  Cover of Muchnick 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.
Copyright © 2005 Stephen A. Edwards Updated Tue Feb 15 15:44:05 EST 2005 All Rights reserved