Course details
Formal Languages and Compilers
IFJ Acad. year 2020/2021 Winter semester 5 credits
Guarantor
Deputy Guarantor
Language of instruction
Completion
Time span
Assessment points
Department
Lecturer
Křivka Zbyněk, Ing., Ph.D. (DIFS FIT BUT)
Meduna Alexander, prof. RNDr., CSc. (DIFS FIT BUT)
Instructor
Křena Bohuslav, Ing., Ph.D. (DITS FIT BUT)
Křivka Zbyněk, Ing., Ph.D. (DIFS FIT BUT)
Martiško Jakub, Ing. (DIFS FIT BUT)
Regéciová Dominika, Ing. (DIFS FIT BUT)
Zobal Lukáš, Ing. (DIFS FIT BUT)
Course Web Pages
- Public course pages with private materials (in Czech; to find lectures in English, download lecture files with "en" suffix)
Subject specific learning outcomes and competences
Learning objectives
Why is the course taught
More specifically, IFJ
- Covers the theory of formal languages and their models, including all essential concepts and properties
- Explains how language models underlie compilers
- Pays a special attention to programming language analyzers, such as scanners and parsers, based on four language models-regular expressions, finite automata, context-free grammars, and pushdown automata
- Discusses the mathematical notion of a Turing machine as a universally accepted formalization of the intuitive notion of a procedure
- Covers the general theory of computation, particularly computability and decidability
In short, this class represents a theoretically oriented treatment of formal languages and their models with a focus on their applications. It introduces all formalisms concerning them with enough rigor to make all results quite clear and valid. Every complicated mathematical passage is preceded by its intuitive explanation so that even the most complex parts of the class are easy to grasp. After taking this class, students should be able to understand the fundamental theory of formal languages and computation, write compilers, and confidently follow the most advanced books on the subject.
Prerequisite kwnowledge and skills
Study literature
- copy of lectures
- Meduna, A.: Automata and Languages. London, Springer, 2000.
- Meduna, A.: Elements of Compiler Design. New York, US, Tailor & Francis, 2008.
- Meduna, A.: Formal Languages and Computation. New York, Taylor & Francis, 2014.
Fundamental literature
- Parsons, T. W.: Introduction to Compiler Construction. Freeman, New York, 1992.
Syllabus of lectures
- Formal languages.
- Translation of languages and the structure of a compiler.
- Regular languages and their models: regular expressions and finite automata.
- Lexical analysis: lexical analyzer; Lex; symbol table.
- Context-free languages and their models: context-free grammars and pushdown automata.
- Syntax analysis: deterministic syntax analysis, FIRST and FOLLOW, LL grammars.
- Deterministic top-down syntax analysis: recursive descent.
- Deterministic bottom-up syntax analysis: simple precedence analysis; Yacc.
- Semantic analysis and intermediate form generation.
- Optimization.
- Code generation.
- Chomsky hierarchy and the corresponding models.
- Remarks and summary. Preliminary discussion of the VYPe contents.
Syllabus - others, projects and individual work of students
Progress assessment
Controlled instruction
- The midterm test takes place approximately in the middle of the semester without a spare or correction term (20 points). If student cannot attend the midterm test, (s)he can ask to derive points from the evaluation of his/her first attempt of the final exam. To enter the final exam in this case, at least 12 points from project are required.
- To apply theoretical knowledge, students work on a team project (25 points). Continuously, the team leader checks the team's progress. In case of illness of the most team members, the team can ask the responsible teacher to extend the time for the project.
- Finally, there is a final exam with two correction terms (55 points).
Exam prerequisites
Course inclusion in study plans