Article

Teaching compiler construction and language design: making the case for unusual compiler projects with postscript as the target language

Author:

Martin RuckertAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '07: Proceedings of the 38th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education

Pages 435 - 439

https://doi.org/10.1145/1227310.1227460

Published: 07 March 2007 Publication History

Abstract

This paper presents an unusual programming language, textttklx, illustrating the type of compiler construction projects the author uses successfully to accompany a mostly traditional lecture on compilers.The target processor of textttklx is the PostScript interpreter, and the paper argues that this is a very good choice. A PostScript interpreter simulates an elegant stack machine with built-in graphic capabilities. It is the perfect target for languages like textttklx, making them easy to implement and fun to use. The exact definition of the source language is an integral part of the student project.The use of non standard languages and a non standard target fosters student creativity in language design and implementation. It invites "out of the box" thinking, and prepares the knowledge transfer from the rich tradition of compiler construction to new and forthcoming areas of computer science.

References

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Adobe Systems Inc. PostScript language reference manual (2nd ed.). Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, USA, 1990.

Digital Library

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A. V. Aho, R. Sethi, and J. D. Ullman. Compilers: principles, techniques, and tools. Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, USA, 1986.

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S. Debray. Making compiler design relevant for students who will (most likely) never design a compiler. In SIGCSE '02: Proceedings of the 33rd SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, pages 341--345, 2002.

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W. Kandinsky. Punkt und Linie zu Fläche: Beitrag zur Analyse der malerischen Elemente. A. Langen, München, 1926.

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klx example code. http://www.cs.fhm.edu/~ruckert/compiler/klx/ex3/.

[6]

klx project description. http://www.cs.fhm.edu/~ruckert/compiler/klx/.

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R. Lang. Ghostscript's home page. http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/, 2004.

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M. Lesk and E. Schmidt. Lex---a lexical analyzer. Technical Report 39, Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ 07974, 1975.

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M. Ruckert. Compiler construction lab on video (in german). Available on request from the author.

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SAX homepage. http://www.saxproject.org/.

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S. C. Johnson. Yacc: Yet another compiler compiler. Computing Science Technical Report 32, Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ 07974, 1975.

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R. W. Sebesta. Concepts of Programming Languages. Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, USA, 2001.

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M. Werner. A parser project in a programming languages course. J. Comput. Small Coll., 18(5):184--192, 2003.

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XML homepage. http://www.xml.org/.

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L. Xu and F. G. Martin. Chirp on crickets: Teaching compilers using an embedded robot controller. In SIGCSE '06: Proceedings of the 37th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, pages 82--86, 2006.

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Cited By

Rodriguez-Cerezo DHenriques PSierra J(2014)Attribute grammars made easier: EvDebugger a visual debugger for attribute grammars2014 International Symposium on Computers in Education (SIIE)10.1109/SIIE.2014.7017699(23-28)Online publication date: Nov-2014
https://doi.org/10.1109/SIIE.2014.7017699
Gondow KFukuyasu NArahori YLewandowski GWolfman SCortina TWalker E(2010)MieruCompilerProceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education10.1145/1734263.1734268(7-11)Online publication date: 10-Mar-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1734263.1734268
Kundra DSureka A(2016)An Experience Report on Teaching Compiler Design Concepts Using Case-Based and Project-Based Learning Approaches2016 IEEE Eighth International Conference on Technology for Education (T4E)10.1109/T4E.2016.052(216-219)Online publication date: Dec-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/T4E.2016.052
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Teaching compiler construction and language design: making the case for unusual compiler projects with postscript as the target language
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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Teaching compiler construction and language design: making the case for unusual compiler projects with postscript as the target language

This paper presents an unusual programming language, textttklx, illustrating the type of compiler construction projects the author uses successfully to accompany a mostly traditional lecture on compilers.The target processor of textttklx is the ...

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

SIGCSE '07: Proceedings of the 38th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education

March 2007

634 pages

ISBN:1595933611

DOI:10.1145/1227310

General Chairs:
Ingrid Russell
University of Hartford
,
Susan Haller
SUNY Potsdam
,
Program Chairs:
J. D. Dougherty
Haverford College
,
Susan Rodger
Duke University

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 39, Issue 1
March 2007
581 pages
ISSN:0097-8418
DOI:10.1145/1227504
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2007 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 07 March 2007

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March 7 - 11, 2007

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Cited By

Rodriguez-Cerezo DHenriques PSierra J(2014)Attribute grammars made easier: EvDebugger a visual debugger for attribute grammars2014 International Symposium on Computers in Education (SIIE)10.1109/SIIE.2014.7017699(23-28)Online publication date: Nov-2014
https://doi.org/10.1109/SIIE.2014.7017699
Gondow KFukuyasu NArahori YLewandowski GWolfman SCortina TWalker E(2010)MieruCompilerProceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education10.1145/1734263.1734268(7-11)Online publication date: 10-Mar-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1734263.1734268
Kundra DSureka A(2016)An Experience Report on Teaching Compiler Design Concepts Using Case-Based and Project-Based Learning Approaches2016 IEEE Eighth International Conference on Technology for Education (T4E)10.1109/T4E.2016.052(216-219)Online publication date: Dec-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/T4E.2016.052
Chakraborty PSaxena PKatti CPahwa GTaneja S(2014)A new practicum in compiler constructionComputer Applications in Engineering Education10.1002/cae.2056622:3(429-441)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/cae.20566

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