Department of Computer Science
CSU Stanislaus
California State University

CS4300-001: Compiler Theory

Fall 2025

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Instructor Dr. Xuejun Liang

My Office: DBH 282

Office Hours: TuTh 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. & W 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

ZOOM Meeting ID: 4438930033, Phone: (209) 667-3169, Email: xliang@csustan.edu

Class Information

Classroom: SB 139 / Online

Class Date & Time: MWF 1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.

Class Website: https://www.cs.csustan.edu/~xliang/Courses3/CS4430-25F

Class Server: wozniak.csustan.edu (used for programming assignments and projects)

Class Canvas: Use your class Canvas account to submit homework assignments.

Class Modality: In-Person. Student attendance is required.

Class Modality: Hybrid Online - Synchronous. In-person class meetings will be on campus at the room, day, and time listed. Online class meetings will be at the day and time listed. Students must be available at the class times listed in the Class Schedule and must attend in person on days indicated as such by the instructor. Students do not have the option to choose in-person or virtual, nor opt for asynchronous participation.

Course Materials

Required Textbook

Compilers: Principles, Techniques, & Tools, 2/E, by Alfred V. Aho, Monica S. Lam, Ravi Sethi and Jeffrey D. Ullman, Addison Wesley, 2007. ISBN: 9-780-321-486-813

Reference Textbooks

1. Compiler Construction: Principles and Practice, by Kenneth C. Louden, PWS Publishing Company, 1997

2. flex & bison: Text Processing Tools, by John Levine, O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2009

3. Modern Compiler Implementation in Java, 2/E, by Andrew W. Appel and Jens Palsberg, Cambridge University Press, 2002

4. Modern Compiler Implementation in C, by Andrew W. Appel and Maia Ginsburg, Cambridge University Press, 2004

5. Advanced Compiler Design and Implementation, by Muchnick Steven, Morgan Kaufmann, 2008

6. Engineering a Compiler, 2nd Edition, by Keith Cooper and Linda Torczon, Addison Wesley, 2011

Handouts

1. Cool Reference Manual

2. Tour of Cool Support Code

3. Cool Runtime System

4. Cool Example Programs

5. SPIM Simulator manual

6. Cool Java Documents

Reference Materials

1. Flex manual

2. JLex manual

3. JFlex manual

4. Bison manual

5. Java CUP manual

6. Lex - A Lexical Analyzer Generator

Lecture Slides

1. Chapter 1: Introduction (A)

2. Chapter 2: A Simple Syntax-Directed Translator (A, B, C, D)

3. Chapter 3: Lexical Analysis (A, B, C, D)

4. Chapter 4: Syntax Analysis (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H)

5. Chapter 5: Syntax-Directed Translation (A, B, C, D)

6. Chapter 6: Intermediate-Code Generation (A)

7. Cool 1

Course Syllabus and Major Topics

Course Description

This course is an introduction to the major methods used in compiler implementation. The parsing methods of LL(k) and LR(k) are covered as well as finite state methods for lexical analysis, symbol table construction, internal forms for a program, run time storage management for block structured languages, and an introduction to code optimization.

Course Outcomes

Students who successfully complete the course should be able to

1. Build a compiler for a (simplified) programming language.
2. Utilize compiler construction tools, such as generators of scanners and parsers.
3. Apply algorithms for lexical analysis.
4. Apply algorithms for LL(1), LR(1), and LALR(1) parsing.
5. Select an intermediate representation, translate expressions, and check types.
6. Describe how the compiler creates and manages a run-time environment to support execution of its target programs.

7. Describe how the code generator performs instruction selection, register allocation and assignment, and instruction ordering.

Homework Assignments

Homework assignments will be announced in class and available on Canvas.

You will submit your assignments on Canvas.

Programming Assignments and Projects (Thanks to Professor Alex Aiken)

Programming assignments and projects will be announced in class and available on Canvas.

You will get skeleton programming files, compile and run your programs, and submit your programming files on the class server.