article

Teaching Software Engineering in a Compiler Project Course

Author:

William G. GriswoldAuthors Info & Claims

Journal on Educational Resources in Computing (JERIC), Volume 2, Issue 4

Pages 3 - es

https://doi.org/10.1145/949257.949260

Published: 01 December 2002 Publication History

Get Access

Abstract

A compiler course with a long-term project is a staple of many undergraduate computer science curricula, and often a cornerstone of a program's applied-engineering component. Software engineering expertise can help a student complete such a course, yet that expertise is often lacking. This problem can be addressed without detracting from the core class materials by integrating a few simple software engineering practices into the course. A domain-specific, risk-driven approach minimizes overhead and reinforces the compiler's material, while treating the project as a "real world" enterprise reinforces key engineering lessons. The method might be called "syntax-directed software engineering," being driven by specification centered around a BNF-style grammar. Engineering lessons are reinforced with general engineering principles and contextualization of the subject matter. The approach can be taught without substantial software engineering background. The domain-specific risk-driven software engineering approach can be applied in other courses such as operating systems by redesigning the practices around its domain.

Supplementary Material

ZIP File (p3-griswold.zip)

Download
246.16 KB

References

[1]

BECK, K. 1999. Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[2]

BOEHM, B. W. 1988. A spiral model of software development and enhancement. Computer 21, 5 (May), 61-72.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[3]

BROOKS, F. P. 1975. The Mythical Man Month: Essays on Software Engineering. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[4]

DIJKSTRA, E. W. 1968. The structure of the "THE"-multiprogramming system. Commun. ACM 11, 5 (May), 341-346.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[5]

GIBBS, W. W. 1994. Software's chronic crisis. Sci. Am. 271, 3 (Sept.), 72-81.

Google Scholar

[6]

JACKSON, M. A. 1975. Principles of Program Design. Academic Press.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[7]

JACKSON, M. A. 1976. Constructive methods of program design. In Proceedings of the 1st Conference of European Cooperation in Informatics. Springer-Verlag, 236-262.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[8]

JOHNSON, S. C. 1978. A portable compiler: Theory and practice. In Proceedings of the 5th Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages. 97-104.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[9]

LEVESON, N. G. AND TURNER, C. S. 1993. An investigation of the Therac-25 accidents. IEEE Computer 26, 7, 18-41.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[10]

LIU, H. 1993. Software engineering practice in an undergraduate compiler course. IEEE Trans. Edu. 36, 1 (Feb.), 104-107.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[11]

PARNAS, D. L. AND WEISS, D. M. 1985. Active design reviews: Principles and practices. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Software Engineering. 132-136.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[12]

PETROSKI, H. 1994. Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Google Scholar

Cited By

View all

Stamenković SJovanović N(2024)A Web-Based Educational System for Teaching CompilersIEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies10.1109/TLT.2023.329762617(143-156)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TLT.2023.3297626
Stamenkovia SJovanovia N(2021)Improving Participation and Learning of Compiler Theory Using Educational Simulators2021 25th International Conference on Information Technology (IT)10.1109/IT51528.2021.9390132(1-4)Online publication date: 16-Feb-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/IT51528.2021.9390132
Kalles D(2016)Artificial Intelligence meets Software Engineering in Computing EducationProceedings of the 9th Hellenic Conference on Artificial Intelligence10.1145/2903220.2903223(1-5)Online publication date: 18-May-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2903220.2903223
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Teaching Software Engineering in a Compiler Project Course
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Model curricula

Recommendations

Teaching Software Engineering in a Compiler Project Course
Software Engineering Project Standards

Software Engineering Project Standards (SEPS) and their importance are presented in this paper by looking at standards in general, then progressively narrowing the view to software standards, to software engineering standards, and finally to SEPS. After ...
A Survey of Software Engineering Practice: Tools, Methods, and Results

The results of a survey of software development practice are reported and analyzed. The problems encountered in various phases of the software life cycle are measured and correlated with characteristics of the responding installations. The use and ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image Journal on Educational Resources in Computing

Journal on Educational Resources in Computing Volume 2, Issue 4

December 2002

54 pages

ISSN:1531-4278

EISSN:1531-4278

DOI:10.1145/949257

Issue’s Table of Contents

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 December 2002

Published in JERIC Volume 2, Issue 4

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Article

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

19
Total Citations
View Citations
1,995
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)10
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)3

Reflects downloads up to 22 Dec 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all

Stamenković SJovanović N(2024)A Web-Based Educational System for Teaching CompilersIEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies10.1109/TLT.2023.329762617(143-156)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TLT.2023.3297626
Stamenkovia SJovanovia N(2021)Improving Participation and Learning of Compiler Theory Using Educational Simulators2021 25th International Conference on Information Technology (IT)10.1109/IT51528.2021.9390132(1-4)Online publication date: 16-Feb-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/IT51528.2021.9390132
Kalles D(2016)Artificial Intelligence meets Software Engineering in Computing EducationProceedings of the 9th Hellenic Conference on Artificial Intelligence10.1145/2903220.2903223(1-5)Online publication date: 18-May-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2903220.2903223
de L. Lima Pda C. C. Franco Fraga Gdos Anjos Eda Silva D(2015)Systematic Mapping Studies in Modularity in IT CoursesComputational Science and Its Applications -- ICCSA 201510.1007/978-3-319-21413-9_10(132-146)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2015
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21413-9_10
Budiselic ISkvorc DSrbljic S(2014)Designing the programming assignment for a university compiler design course2014 37th International Convention on Information and Communication Technology, Electronics and Microelectronics (MIPRO)10.1109/MIPRO.2014.6859688(861-866)Online publication date: May-2014
https://doi.org/10.1109/MIPRO.2014.6859688
Lorenzo EVelez JPeñas ARößling GNaps TSpannagel C(2011)A proposal for automatic evaluation in a compiler construction courseProceedings of the 16th annual joint conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education10.1145/1999747.1999833(308-312)Online publication date: 27-Jun-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1999747.1999833
Fischer BLämmel RZaytsev V(2011)Comparison of context-free grammars based on parsing generated test dataProceedings of the 4th international conference on Software Language Engineering10.1007/978-3-642-28830-2_18(324-343)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-642-28830-2_18
Barrón-Estrada MZatarain-Cabada RZatarain-Cabada RGarcía C(2010)A hybrid learning compiler courseProceedings of the Third international conference on Hybrid learning10.5555/1884419.1884446(229-238)Online publication date: 16-Aug-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1884419.1884446
Barrón-Estrada MZatarain-Cabada RZatarain-Cabada RReyes García C(2010)A Hybrid Learning Compiler CourseHybrid Learning10.1007/978-3-642-14657-2_21(229-238)Online publication date: 2010
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14657-2_21
Connolly CMeiselwitz GGantz DBaker KGarrison D(2009)Integrating software engineering in computer programming educationProceedings of the 10th ACM conference on SIG-information technology education10.1145/1631728.1631745(50-54)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1631728.1631745
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Cited By

Index Terms

Recommendations