CS601 : System Software and Compiler Design


Coverage plan for theory part :
===============================

1. Overview of System Software
	The problem of Translation

2. Assembly language and essentials of assembly process
	Executable statements, Assembler directives

3. Lexical analysis
    - Tokens, keywords, identifiers, literals
    - C program for Lexical analysis
    - Finite automata and C program to implement it
    - Lexical analyser generator - LEX, REX

4. Assembler data structures, Symbol table

5. Single phase and multiple phase assembly process

6. Assembler macros and macroprocessors

7. Linkers and Loaders
    - Basic concepts of modular programs, linking of modules,
      and laoding.
    - Static and Dynamic linking
    - Shared libraries - case study of Sun Solaris and MS Windows
    - OLE, ActiveX
    - Loaders and Overlay

8. Compilers	:
    - Basic features of High Level Languages and overview of the issues in
      translation of HLL programs.
    - Phases of a compiler.
    - Languages and grammar, Chomsky hierarchy of grammar.

9. Parsing : Top-down and Bottom-up parsers
    - Parse trees
    - Study of some parsing techniques and working out examples -
	shift-reduce parser, recursive descent (operator precedence) parser,
	LL(1), LR(0), SLR, LALR parsers.
    - Parser generator - YACC, bison

10. Intermediate code generation - Syntax-directed translation.

11. Error handling and recovery.

12. Storage allocation
    - Symbol table revisited
    - Structured programs and activation records
    - Parameter passing techniques

13. Code optimization	: Basic Techniques.

14. Debuggers
    - Break-points, controlled execution
    - examination of variables, stack, and internal registers
    - advanced features - user interface using source symbols, modification
      of values, logging of input sequences, etc.

Approximate Schedule :
======================
	Topics 1, 2, 3 and 4			4 weeks
	Topics 5, 6, and 7			3 weeks
	Topics 8, and 9				5 weeks
	Topics 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14		3 weeks

Note : One week is equivalent to 4 theory classes and 2 laboratory contact
	hours.


Laboratory work :
=================

1. Familiarisation with UNIX environment :
    - User account, login, shell
    - Basic commands
    - Files and directories, access permissions
    - Environment variables
    - The vi editor - basic operations
    - Compiling and running programs
    - Getting help - man pages

2. Writing a lexical analyser program for a representative assembly language
    using C.

3. Lexical analyser generator - LEX, REX

4. Implementation of assembler data structures including Symbol table

5. Writing a simple assembler

6. Implementation of a simple parsing technique as a C program

7. Parser generator - YACC, bison

8. Familiarisation with libraries in UNIX, Windows

9. Using a debugger in UNIX.