Instructor
Catalog Description
Learning Objectives
Disability Services
Emotional or Mental Health Distress
Grading
Computer Accounts
Suggested Readings
UNH Online Platform Registration If you aren't already a member
of the CS Dept. Online server (Discord) We will be using this for class this term.
UNH CS Gitlab Submissions are made through the UNH CS Gitlab, with
starter code available to be forked from my account
Starter code All starter code for
this course will be available here, and you should fork from this repo for initial course setup.
Course GitLab Setup
Programming Project: Phase 1
Programming Project: Phase 2
Programming Project: Phase 3
Programming Project: Phase 4
This is an implementation-intensive course. (Note: this course no longer counts as a theory course.)
The prerequisite for this course is CS520.
It is really helpful if you have had CS659, some topics discussed in CS761/CS671 are relevant for
intuitive understanding of some features implemented during this course.
For more information refer to www.unh.edu/studentaccessibility or contact SAS at 603.862.2607, 711 (Relay NH) or sas.office@unh.edu.
The project will consist of 4 phases:
Each project assignment will be worth 16% of the course grade and consist of 100 points. Assignments are due at midnight on the day they are due, but there is a ten-hour grace period until 10am the next day. Late penalties here are selected based on the fact that every phase builds on prior phases. If variables from phase 1 do not work, arrays for phase 2 can not be tested, and so on. Individual exceptions adjustments will not be made outside of extraordinary circumstances. If any adjustment occurs, it will be class-wide, with those who submitted on the original due date receiving additional credit. Project assignments may be handed in late at a penalty of 2 points for one day late, 5 points for two days late, with every additional day late subtracting an additional 7 points. (3 days is -12, 4 is -21). The ten-hour grace period is in effect for the late submissions as well.
The project is cumulative. You must live with your code for the whole semester. Solutions for phases will not be given out. Regression testing is critical.
Note that while many tests are provided for each phase, there are a number of tests that are used for grading that are not published until after each phase is completed. You should construct your compiler defensively, handling "bad input" and "weird situations" gracefully.
Compilers in the wild are implicitly relied on for fundamental soundness. Even though your compilers are not themselves going to be relied on for the next aerospace guidance system or nuclear power plant control system, it's very important to understand even how inconvenient and infuriating a compiler bug can be given how widely used they are and how much trust is placed in them. Grades for this course are rather lenient toward even soundness bugs, but these hidden inputs will hopefully reinforce the importance of architectural soundness and complexity reduction. Don't be afraid to rewrite part of your project if you realize you made an incorrect assumption, don't be afraid to change the starter code to fit a more intuitively sound model of T.
WARNING: To get full credit on a programming assignment, your code must be adequately documented and structured. If I can't easily read and understand your code, you may lose points!
The bulk of the remainder of your grade is comprised of four project checkpoints, each worth 8% of your final grade. Each checkpoint serves as a chance to review implementation approaches and assess project progress. These checkpoints do not rely on completion of the project phase they correspond to, but are designed to clear up conceptual concerns and to form a deeper understanding of the approaches discussed in class as they apply to the project. Each checkpoint is to be scheduled within two weeks after the due date of the corresponding project phase. They are preferred to be done as a ~20 minute meeting (in person or over Zoom), however alternative textual completion options (write-up form with a chat component) may be arranged at student request. These are not designed to be interrogative, and are instead an opportunity for you, the student, to walk me through your process and your design. Extra credit opportunities may exist for students who wish to present novel approaches to construction of their compiler--or novel approaches to compiler construction in general--to the class.
The rest (4%) of your course grade will be based upon class participation. Students should feel encouraged to participate in class discussions, ask questions where there are conceptual gaps (I don't always know what other people don't know), and bring outside information into class. Compiler and language design are both surprisingly fluid fields at this time, with many major advancements and new languages that attempt to fill "stale" or novel niches. These advancements are useful context to ground the theory discussed in class, so students should feel free to bring articles/projects/posts to class, and to volunteer approaches so they can be discussed.
WARNING: All students are expected to do their own work on the programming assignments. No collaboration on the compiler project is allowed. A general rule to follow is that you may discuss the programs with other students at the concept level but never at the coding level. If you are at all unclear about this general rule, don't discuss the programs with other students at all.
In summary, your course grade will be determined in the following way:
Final course grades (FOR UNDERGRADS) will be assigned in the following way:
The UNH CS server agate.cs.unh.edu is the primary computing resource for this course. You should automatically be given an account on this machine. During the semester you may use any other machines that you have access to, but for grading purposes your programs must execute on agate.cs.unh.edu.
Comments and questions should be directed to Sawyer.Bergeron@usnh.edu.