compilation-project

During our practice of compilation, we are going to write a compiler for a simple arithmetic expression language.

AUTHORS

• Yahia HENI
• Mariem MARZOUGUI

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Description of the project

This micro-project entails developing a straightforward compiler. It transforms programs written in a high-level language, dubbed expr, into a low-level language known as pfx. Expr is a basic expression language supporting arithmetic operations, variables, and function definitions. Conversely, pfx is a stack-based language, functioning on a stack of values and executing operations by pushing and popping values from the stack.

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Sources

Git repository: https://github.com/MariemMARZOUGUI/compilation-project

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How to…

…retrieve the sources?

git clone https://github.com/MariemMARZOUGUI/compilation-project

…compile?

dune build

…execute and test?

dune utop and then use the libraries (from project root) dune exec expr/main.exe -- expr/basic/tests/an_example.expr (from project root) dune exec expr/main.exe -- expr/fun/tests/an_example.expr dune exec ./pfxVM.exe -- TESTFILE.pfx -a 12 -a 52

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Structure of the project

The project has two main parts: the expr compiler and the pfx virtual machine.

The expr compiler translates input from the expr language to the pfx language. It includes a lexer, parser, and modules for evaluating expressions and converting code.

The pfx virtual machine executes programs in the pfx language, featuring a lexer, parser, and execution modules.

Also, there's a location module for source code positions and a binOp module for shared binary operators. These are in the utils folder alongside a dune file for building.

The project is organized into subdirectories for each part, each with its own dune file. Basic subdirectories contain modules common to both compilers. Lastly, there's a README for usage and testing instructions.

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Progress, known bugs and issues

• We stopped at question 13.2 (proof of derivation)

• We tried to code what is required for the questions 10 and 11 from what we understood but we are not sure if it is true ( the dune build is successful but we don't know how to test it )

  (from project root) dune exec expr/main.exe -- expr/basic/tests/an_example.expr (from project root) dune exec expr/main.exe -- expr/fun/tests/an_example.expr (from project root) dune exec expr/main.exe -- expr/basic/tests/an_example1.expr (from project root) dune exec expr/main.exe -- expr/fun/tests/an_example1.expr

--> are all functional

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Helpful resources

• Ocaml Documentation : https://www.ocaml.org/docs
• Dune Documentation : https://dune.readthedocs.io/en/stable/index.html
• Debugging : https://stackoverflow.com && https://chat.openai.com
• Also, we mainly worked in class so the teacher's help was very useful for our progress.

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Difficulties

• we struggled to test the compiler, sometimes we don't know the specefic commands that are required to test especially before coding the parser
• exercice 10 was quite challenging ( especially understanding the notion of depth )
• the project posed a significant challenge, particularly due to our lack of prior experience with the OCaml language.