CS 4470-001 Spring 2025 Compilers

• Understand concepts in lexical analysis, and implement a lexer
• Understand how a programming language is represented by a grammar
• Understand LL and LR parsing, and write an LL parser
• Understand concepts in type checking, and implement a type checker
• Understand target-independent program optimizations, and implement several relatively simple optimizations
• Understand code generation, and implement generation of x86-64

There are no required materials / textbooks.

Optional reading:

• Cooper & Torczon. Engineering a Compiler. 2nd edition. ISBN13 9780120884780
  • @ University of Utah library

Discord:

• https://discord.gg/sfQBgKBwsr 

Email:

• blg@cs.utah.edu
• benjaminlgreenman@gmail.com (unofficial but preferred)

TBD

• Grades will be assigned on a 90/80/70/60 scale,
  • We reserve the option to curve raw scores before assigning grades if they judge that students’ numeric performance is not representative of the grades they deserve.
• Grade components
  • 70% programming assignments
  • 20% in-class participation, though presentations and discussions
    • Contact the instructor if in-class participation is a major barrier
  • 10% quizzes, including course evaluations.

There will be no exams. No midterms, no final.

Class time will be used for lecture and discussion. We’ll spend a lot of time looking at compiler code in class: some of it written by students, some by the instructors, and some by compiler developers in industry. Outside of class, most of your time will be spent implementing a compiler for a language called JPL (designed to provide a relevant, challenging, and interesting learning experience). The instructors will provide extensive test cases to guide your journey toward a correct compiler. Writing compiler code is the most effective way to learn about how compilers work.

Students will build a real compiler, in stages, throughout the semester. Subsequent assignments will build upon early ones. Do a good job each week to avoid falling behind.

Late work: Assignments are due weekly at 5pm on Fridays. Late submissions are allowed until the start of class on Monday without penalty. We will not accept submissions after class starts.

Participation: We strongly encourage your participation in both in-class discussions and online forums. The instructor will provide a welcoming environment in which we understand that all code has bugs and the goal is to find more bugs, not to criticize the bugs author.

Online: We will use Canvas, Discord, and GitHub. Online discussion will center on Discord. All programming artifacts will live on GitHub. Canvas will record whatever things must be in Canvas.

Academic Misconduct: We follow the Kahlert School of Computing policy. See below. Academic dishonesty results in a failing grade for the course. Two instances of academic dishonestly lead to expulsion from the major. 

Zoom: Lectures will be streamed on zoom and recordings will be available on Canvas for several weeks. Zoom attendance is allowed but not encouraged. We will not actively monitor the chat. We are unlikely to allow audio from participants (the host machine will probably be muted). The positioning of the recording camera and microphone may be poor. Our goal with the recordings is to allow anyone to catch up with class for any reason it might be necessary (no questions asked), but without detracting from the in-person experience where audio/video choppiness ("oops i was muted", etc, etc.) is much less of a problem.

AI + LLM: You may use AI tools (including but not limited to ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, Llama, Claude, etc. etc.) for any part of this course. You must cite the AI contributions to your work and you must take full responsibility for the outputs. Failure to do so may result in a zero for the assignment and an academic integrity case. Beware that AI tools may produce wrong and misleading output, and beware that their cost to the environment may not be factored in to their usage price.

[2024-12-13: tentative schedule, subject to change]

Accommodations will be considered on an individual basis and may require documentation.

Please contact the instructor as soon as possible (preferably shortly before the semester begins) to request accommodations of any kind.

Contact your instructor as soon as possible if an extreme personal circumstance
(hospitalization, death of a close relative, natural disaster, etc.) is interfering with your ability to
complete your work.

To request an accommodation for religious practices, contact your instructor at the beginning of the semester.

If you are student on active duty with the military and experience issues that prevent you from participating in the course because of deployment or service responsibilities, contact your instructor as soon as possible to discuss appropriate accommodations.