CSC 2371 Spring 2007 Home Page

Instructor: Dr. Steve Cooper (610-660-1561, scooper@sju.edu)

Mondays 4:00-5:15 in McShain 2

Wednesdays 4:00-5:15 in McShain 2

Office Hours: I am planning to hold office hours at the Center of Visualization office, located at 203 West City Ave. Suite B-2. For those of you who haven't been to my office, just go to Starbucks and walk about 15 feet to your left. My tentative schedule for office hours is:

• Monday 1:00-2:00 PM
• Wednesday 2:00-4:00 PM
• Thursday 1:00-2:00 PM

Objectives: My objectives for you for this class are the following (largely borrowed from the ACM's CC2001 objectives):

• To describe the steps and algorithms used by language translators.
• To recognize the underlying formal models such as finite state automata, push-down automata and their connection to language definition through regular expressions and grammars.
• To discuss the effectiveness of optimization.
• To explain the impact of a separate compilation facility and the existence of program libraries on the compilation process.

Prior Assumed Knowledge: I assume that you have achieved a sufficient level of mastery of programming in a high level language (preferably both in an imperative language such as C as well as in an object oriented programming language such as C++ or Java -- this must include data structures). Note that we will spend little to no time in class discussing programming.

Text: The required text for the course is Programming Language Processors in Java: Compilers and Interpreters by David Watt and Deryck Brown. (Prentice-Hall) (click here for the Prentice Hall website). The authors maintain their own website, where, among other things, you can get the code for the Triangle compiler. Please go to http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~daw/books/PLPJ/ to get it. Please note that I will likely assign readings from outside the text as well -- I'll be making those readings available at the library or providing web references. It is expected that you will do the assigned readings before the class, and be ready to ask about parts of the text that you found difficult. I will not "hound" you about doing the readings. I will assume you have done them, and will expect you to ask questions if you have difficulties. I will also not generally go over parts of the text unless you ask me questions about it.

Labs: 10%

Homeworks: 25%

Interpreter: 10%

Compiler modification: 15%

Midterm: 20%

Final: 30%

Attendance: You are expected to attend ALL classes. Missing more than two classes without prior approval will result in a lower course grade.

Plagiarism: I should not have to mention this in an upper-level college course, but I have run into problems in the past. Plagiarism may be defined to be the copying of another’s text (or code) or ideas without due credit (via appropriate quotation marks and footnotes/endnotes). If I find that you have plagiarized, you will, at a minimum, fail the class.

Cheating: Cheating on the exams or on the homeworks or on the labs (and being caught) will result in an automatic failure for the class.

Due Dates: Work is due at the start of the class on the due date. Late work will be accepted up to 1 week late for 50% of the score.

Course Schedule: I am providing you with a tentative schedule of the coverage of material. Depending on the class, the schedule may need to be changed. We will "cross that bridge" should we need to get to it.

The following schedule lists due dates for all assignments and reading. I reserve the right to adjust the schedule to meet the needs of the class.

I am planning to assign several (perhaps even weekly) lab assignments. We do not have any lab time in class. So, I will make sure that I am available in a lab at set hours, so that you will be able to ask me questions as you are working on the labs.

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Stephen Cooper - Tuesday, January 16, 2007 11:34:12 PM