deliverable: comments and desugaring

The following modifications should be made to the flex+bison/C version of the JOOS compiler. You must document the lines that need to be changed; source code comments are preferred.

C-style comments

// this is a comment

It would be nice to additionally allow multi-line comments, such as:

/* this is a
   somewhat
   longer comment */

You must allow for any text to appear between an opening /* and the first */ that follows it. This improvement can be implemented by only making changes to the file joos.l. Hint: if you get stuck, it's a good idea to RTFM. (Where F stands for Flex, naturally.) You will probably get stuck.

Increments and for-loops

for (i=0; i<10; i++) k=k*i;

These constructs may be introduced as mere syntactic sugar, since they can readily be expressed in the JOOS language itself. This improvement can be implemented by only making changes to the files joos.l and joos.y.

You should not reject increments or for-loops where the A+ compiler would accept them. To get an A, you should strive to match what the A+ compiler accepts. (You might think you deserve an A+ for this, but an A+ has become harder to earn over the years.) To get more than an A, you should handle some things that javac accepts that the A+ compiler does not accept. You should only attempt this once you have secured an A. How many different javac-only cases can you find?

Use Subversion to copy the A- JOOS source to your group directory:

$ svn cp public_html/joos/a- group-X/joos/scanparse

and commit that before beginning work. Then, make your modifications, include some tiny test programs that compile and run correctly with your improved compiler---but also test your benchmark program for this week if it uses these constructs---and add a README file describing your work and the changes you needed to make. It is fine to leave precise details to comments in the source code. Format your text in 80 column blocks for readability, and stick to the current JOOS programming style.

Your TA will use Subversion to look at your changes and run your test programs in order to evaluate you. Remember, multiple small test inputs are more useful than one big test input that attempts to cover all features; a combination of both is even better.

This deliverable is due by midnight on Friday of Week 5. It will count for 5% of your grade. Marks will be generously deducted for late submissions.