ECE495S Project Step0&1 Notes & FAQ

FAQ:

1. Did I turn in correct?

A: As long as you see the output like the example on webpage, your files are turned in, but it is more convenient for me to create scripts for grading if the makefile is in the first level of the direcotory that you turned in.

The name of the directory after the “-v” parameter has to be your group account name so as not to overlap with other’s homework when I uncompress them.

I’ve been looking through some of your turnins and found that some groups are turning in files with makefiles in the first level and also subdirectories. The purpose of having your makefiles at the first level is that I’ll be writing scripts to run the “make” command under linux to run your code automatically and displaying the results. So, what you have to make sure essentially before turnin is that your code runs well after the “make” command is invoked in linux. So, even if you are developing under Windows, if you are using C/C++ or Java, you have to copy your codes to your ecn account, test the “make” command to make sure the makefile generates the executable binary on a linux machine before turnin.

If you are using C#, I won’t be able to run the test on linux. I’m going to test it on ECN Windows Machines like the ones in MSEE189. So, just make sure that you make it clear how to run your binary in the kind of README file.

2. Are the keywords case sensitive?

Yes, “program” is an id and “PROGRAM” is a keyword.

3. How do I read newsgroups?

On Windows, you can use Thunderbird, etc.
On Linux, you can use pine, tin, etc.
Keep in mind that if your network is off campus, you need to set up vpn connection.
Google for “vpn client site:purdue.edu”.

Thanks to Mr. Matt Swanson, there is another solution which avoids using vpn:
Choose SSL connection in the configuration set up for your newsgroup in your Thunderbird, (other softwares might also have this configuration some where) once you click finish and check for news, it will prompt for credentials which require your PUID login once. After that, you are free to browse newsgroup like on campus.

4.Integer number format? Is 012 legal?

Yes, it is legal.

5. String literal format?

For now, you can treat
“Hello,
World!”
as a legal string though it contains “newline” character.

6. ECE573 students: what if we want to work in group?
Send an email to both me and Professor Kulkarni, including the names of students in your group, and one ecn account name that you are going to use for turning in your project steps. You only need to turn in one copy. The same grade will be given for each member of the group. I don’t know yet whether Professor Kulkarni allow groups of more than 2 students.

7. Is there a solution binary so that we have a reference of what should the output be like for each step?

As some students are proposing that a solution binary makes it more clear about what the compiler should be like on some issues not clear and makes the test of their own binary easier, I’ll try my best to keep you updated with a solution binary. The links for the available solution binaries will be on each step’s instruction webpage. I’ll keep all the solution binaries accessible at this url:
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~yuanl/ECE495SProj/solbin/

8. What if I have more questions regarding the LITTLE language grammar?

The purpose of the project is to let you focus on studying the principles of compiler. Issues like “case sensitive, multi-line strings” shouldn’t be a problem for grading. As long as you implemented the essential functionality for each step, your grade should be fine.

I’ll try my best to keep the solution binary posted to let you have a reference.

TA Notes:

For this step, if you are using ANTLR. Depending on you system, you’ll have to do some set-ups for the CLASSPATH environment variable to point to the antlr.jar file.

In linux,

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~yuanl/ECE495SProj/antlrtemplate/howtojava.txt

In Windows,
Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Environment Variables -> Add a new variable called “CLASSPATH” and point it to your jar file. So you can use java under cmd to compile your codes.