2110316  Programming Languages Principles 3(3-0-6)

1st semester  2016

Prabhas Chongstitvatana

Assessment

Language and implementation

Announcement

Study Plan

Lecture sessions

Bonus:  Retro programming or the power of emulation 

Assessment for this part

Classwork

I'd like to build the world a home
And furnish it with love
Grow apple trees and honey bees
And snow white turtle doves

I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
I'd like to hold it in my arms
And keep it company

Homework

Project

1) Write a report on how a compiler or an interpreter of a computer language works.  You have to choose from three languages: LISP, Python and Haskell (one from the past, one of the present and one in the future).  Choose the language you like most (or that has something that you find interesting).

I want the content to be focused on compiler (interpreter) rather than historical facts and other tidbits.  You must write in your own word (in Thai or in English). Do not cut and paste. You need to synthesize your idea. The length of the report is around 4 pages.  I expect this to take you about 9 hours of work. 

Hand in your report in paper.  Put it in the inbox in front of my office before 4pm, Friday 28 Oct 2016.  Late submission will not be accepted.

New

Write a parser --  Given a language, write its grammar, computer its First and Follow set, make the parsing table. Then, write its parser. You must hand-in a report of length 4-5 pages contains the following:

You don't need to send me the actual code for the parser. 

Please hand-in your report before 4 pm, Friday 2 December 2016, at the box in front of my office, building 4, floor 18, room 13. Late submission will not be accepted.

The language :

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A language that "verbalise" programming.  Imagine how to help a blind person to write a computer program.  We can use speech recognition to "transcribe" sound to text.  However it is cumbersome to just spell out text of our conventional programing language.  Try to read this "hello world" aloud.

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void){
  printf("hello world\n");
  return 0;
}

Let us improve the "verbalisation" a little bit.  We can use "command" then follow by "parameters".  When the number of parameters is variable, we can use the word "stop" to delimit them. We can also use that to say the end of the code block.  Let us use this example:

square(x){
  return x * x;
}

We can verbalise it like this:

function square parameter x stop block return expression x mul x stop

Wow, this will be super good!
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Now, back to your project,  use this idea to design your small language (you can use the above example, it is good enough to be used to write a simple program with no data type).  Give examples of your program, both input "speech" and output (C like).  Write the grammar for your language.  Implement a parser (no need to generate output), a pure parser that parses proper input is sufficient.

Hope you enjoy this project.  If you want any discussion, please use Courseville of this class, or failing that Facebook messenger to me, find me "Prabhas Chongstitvatana".  I promise to check the channel once a day. 

Reference Text

Extra reading

• A chart of genealogy of programming languages  (pdf) (You need to zoom to 100% to see it)

Tools

How to use the compiler