A Set of Tools to Teach Compiler Construction

Abstract

Compiler construction is a widely used software engineering exercise, but because most students will not be compiler writers, care must be taken to make it relevant in a core curriculum. Auxiliary tools, such as generators and interpreters, often hinder the learning: students have to fight tool idiosyncrasies, mysterious errors, and other poorly educative issues. We introduce a set of tools especially designed or improved for compiler construction educative projects in C ++. We also provide suggestions about new approaches to compiler construction. We draw guidelines from our experience to make tools suitable for education purposes