Written or oral exam; Successful participation in the exercise is a prerequisite for the exam.

How does the translation of a high-level programming language into machine instructions work? An understanding of this is not only of interest to compiler developers, but any good programmer should know how modern compilers and virtual machines work: On the one hand, it allows a deeper understanding of what happens when a program is executed; on the other hand, many of the technologies from compiler construction can be usefully applied in many other programs. Some keywords about the content: parsing, abstract syntax trees, intermediate representations, data flow analysis, register allocation, optimizations, runtime systems and virtual machines, compilers for object-oriented and functional languages.

Students will be able to understand the different phases of a compiler. They can independently implement compilers for simple programming languages and understand the trade-offs and alternatives that exist when designing and selecting compiler technologies.

Andrew W. Appel, Modern Compiler Implementation in ML, Cambridge University Press.