CS-354 — Compiler Construction

Course Description

This course covers the theory and practice of compiler construction: how a compiler translates source programs into executable code while preserving their meaning. We study each phase of the compilation pipeline — lexical analysis, parsing, semantic analysis, intermediate representation, optimization, and code generation.

Beyond compilers themselves, the techniques covered here — finite automata, grammars, tree-based program representations, and dataflow analysis — recur throughout computer science, from static analysis tools and IDEs to query engines and formal verification.

Course Outcomes / Objectives

Explain the phases of a compiler and the role each plays in translating source code to target code.
Design and implement a lexical analyzer using finite automata and regular expressions.
Construct top-down and bottom-up parsers by hand and with parser generators (e.g., Bison/Yacc).
Perform semantic analysis, including type checking and scope resolution using symbol tables.
Generate and reason about intermediate representations such as three-address code and abstract syntax trees.
Apply classical optimization techniques and generate working target-machine or virtual-machine code.

Text Books

Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (2nd ed.) — Aho, Lam, Sethi, Ullman — primary textbook
Engineering a Compiler (2nd ed.) — Cooper & Torczon — supplementary reference