CS540: Language Processors (Spring 2020)

1 Course Basics

1.1 Meeting Time and Location:

• Monday/Wednesday 9-10:15am, Blueridge Hall 129
  

1.2 Instructor: Dr. Yutao Zhong

• Email: yzhong (at) gmu (dot) edu
• Office: Engineering Building 4433

• Compiler design
• Lexical analysis
• Syntax analysis - grammars, LL(1) parsers, LR(1) parsers
• Semantic processing
• Code generation and optimization

1.4 Course Outcomes

At the end of this course, students should

• Be able to compare compiled and interpreted execution models, outlining the relative merits of each.
• Be able to describe the phases of program translation from source code to executable code and the files produced by these phases.
• Be able to write regular expressions and finite state automata for languages, be able to use tools to automatically generate scanners.
• Understand the definition of grammars; be able to write grammar for context-free languages; be able to manually write recursive-descent parsers; be able to transform grammars and use automatic tools to generate bottom-up parsers.
• Be able to construct and maintain symbol table; be able to process declarations and scopes; understand the type system and type checking.
• Be able to describe the storage system and explain the implementation of high-level language features like function calls.
• Be able to explain the major problems and solutions of code generation; be able to implement code generator from intermediate code.
• Be able to explain important optimization schemes; be able to describe and apply data-flow analysis.

1.5 Prerequisites: C or better in CS310/CS330/CS367

Students are expected to be acquainted with formal models and languages(CS330), computer systems and assembly languages(CS367), and data structures(CS310). Students should have strong programming skills with at least one language in C/C++/Java.

1.6 Textbook:

• Required - Compilers: Principles, Techniques and Tools, Aho, Lam, Sethi, and Ullman (aka Dragon book), 2/E, Addison-Wesley, August, 2006. Errata Page.
• Recommended - lex & yacc, Levine, Mason, and Brown, published by O'Reilly, 2nd Edition, October 1992. Errata Page.

1.7 Other Useful Resources:

• Piazza: Course schedule, announcements, lecture slides, discussion, contacts, and office hours. Follow the link to sign up.
  
• Blackboard: Grades release and assignments submission.

2 Grading

2.1 Assessment

2.2 Projects

• All projects must be done on an individual basis unless stated otherwise.
• All project grades are normalized and each contributes to your final grade evenly.
  
• Incorrect/broken submissions:
• Turning in the wrong files will likely result in a zero.
• Code that doesn't compile/run will likely get a very low score. It specifically MUST compile/run on zeus.vse.gmu.edu.
• Late Policy:
  • Up to 48 hours late work accepted. Each day late drops the highest possible score by 25%.
    
  • Each student gets two "Emergency Day" tokens, which are automatically used by late submissions to avoid the 25% penalty.
    
  • Unused emergency-tokens will be worth 0.25% bonus to a student's overall grade at the semester's end.
  • Blackboard being unavailable is not an excuse for turning in a late assignment; in the rare situation that the website is somehow unavailable or giving the student an error, the student MUST email their submission to their GTA before the deadline, otherwise it will be considered late.
  • Catastrophic computer failure will not be cause for an extension. Use a backup service such as DropBox (or any cloud service), emailing yourself, making multiple rounds of submissions to Blackboard, whatever it takes.
    

2.3 Exams

• Exams are closed book unless specified otherwise by instructor.
  
• They will be entirely paper and pencil - no computers.
• All students must have their GMU identification available on testing days.
  
• Early or Late/Makeup Exams require exceptional circumstances (as judged by the professor) and must be arranged in advance. Vacation plans are not exceptional circumstances.
  
• If you miss an exam due to a university-accepted excused absence (such as an illness or car accident the day and time of the exam), you must notify your professor within 24 hours of your absence to make arrangements for a makeup, and bring approved documentation with you when you take the make-up exam. Failure to follow either of these policies will result in a zero. We may elect to allow the final exam to count the extra amount to give you a sort of do-over; we also reserve the right to give oral makeup exams in lieu of written.
• The final will not be given early. You are starting the course with knowledge of the schedule (see GMU's Final Exam Calendar for the latest schedule, updated as weather events require).

2.4 Discussion board

• Students are encouraged to use the discussion board, Piazza, to ask and answer questions.  
• No sharing answers to homework assignments on the discussion board. 
  
• Under no circumstances should code be posted publicly to the discussion board. Students can post questions and code privately, although the instructor reserves the right to make any post public, so that other students can see the responses.

2.5 Other

• Contested Grades: Contesting of grades on any/all submissions must be requested within one week of receiving the grade (on BlackBoard). No grade changes will be considered subsequent to that deadline.
• There will be no make-up or extra-credit assignments at the end of the semester; your grade should be a measure of your semester-long progress.
  
• IN (Incomplete) policy as indicated in the catalog will be strictly adhered to. You must provide the necessary back-up documentation (e.g. medical certificate) for your application to be considered favorably. In all circumstances, the written request, with all the back up documentation, must be received before the final exam week.

3 Honor Code

All students are expected to abide by the GMU Honor Code. This policy is rigorously enforced. The computer science department has an CS Honor Code Policies that you are subject to particularly for our course.  Cheating on any assignment will be prosecuted and result in a notification of the Honor Committee as outlined in the GMU Honor Code. Sharing, collaboration, or looking at any code, algorithm, or solutions of assignments that is not your own (or outside the group for group assignments), including resources from Internet, is considered cheating.

We take the honor code quite seriously. Any attempts at copying or sharing code, algorithms, or other violations of the honor code simply will not be tolerated. We use automated software to flag suspicious cases, and then review them to find the cases that must be submitted to the Office of Academic Integrity. The penalty for cheating will always be far worse than a zero grade, to ensure it's not worth taking the chance. Confirmed cases of cheating almost always translate into course failure.

4 Learning Disabilities

Students with a learning disability or other condition (documented with GMU's Office of Disability Services) that may impact academic performance should speak with the professor ASAP to discuss appropriate accommodations.

5 Campus Resources

• Computer Labs – there are several freely available computer labs on campus
• GMU Learning Services
• Office of Disability Services
• Student Support and Advocacy Center
• Counseling and Support Services
• English as a Second Language (ESL) Writing Support