Scanners
14 January 2004, early evening
I met with Kumar today to work on our compilers project. We think we have sketched out what we need to implement in order to recognize the tokens in our language.
For those who don’t know, when you write a computer program, the first part of compilation involves a program called a scanner breaking your program up into individual tokens, which are then fed to a parser and processed further. For example, a C code fragment like “x = x + 1” would become something like “ID ASSIGN ID PLUS INT_LITERAL”. Additional information like the name of the identifier and the value of the integer literal would also be stored in the token, to be used later when compiling. So now you know a little bit more about compilers.
It is so cold outside. I am in no mood to walk back home, but will probably do so shortly.
You just made all that up didn't you.
by mk on January 14 2004, 9:16 pm #
Yeah, you got me. Compilers, like Electronics, is all Voodoo Magic. My partner and I have purchased hair, goat guts, and other creole objects.
by ramanan on January 14 2004, 9:59 pm #
Yeah, my labs usually consist of firing some animal bones in a kiln, seeing how they crack and writing down some numbers.
by mk on January 14 2004, 11:38 pm #
Reminds me of class with Mr. J. The good old days if you will. One day I hope to have the remnants of a PhD sitting in my basement.
by ramanan on January 15 2004, 12:14 am #
Yeah, back then I used to wonder how it was even possible to make complicated electronics.
by mk on January 15 2004, 2:06 am #