Experimenting an implementation-focused approach to undergraduate compiler course Online publication date: Tue, 29-Jul-2014
by Xiaohong Wang; Ren Wan; Hilary Vernon; Matt Thorne; Josh Bargar
International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies (IJTCS), Vol. 5, No. 1, 2014
Abstract: Compiler construction is one of the most challenging courses to teach in undergraduate computer science curriculum. In a traditional compiler course, many theoretical topics are covered and a compiler project is assigned. Our previous experience shows that this approach not only is challenging but also can be ineffective sometimes. To cover the extensive amount of material within a semester is a struggle. To expect students to produce a working compiler is also impractical since most undergraduates have little experience in developing large software. Our preliminary experiment using an implementation-focused approach produces many positive outcomes. In this approach, the lectures focused on the case study of the design and implementation of a Pascal compiler using a language independent framework. For the project, students successfully used the given language independent framework to design and develop a working compiler for a modified subset C language.
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