An Effective Approach for Teaching Runtime Environments in a Compiler Construction Course

Abstract

Compiler construction course is one of the important professional courses for computer science and technology majors. The study of compiler construction is a practical exercise in software engineering. The teaching of compiling techniques can be effectively enhanced by compiling practical examples in compiler constructing courses. In this paper, an effective approach for teaching runtime environments in a compiler construction course is presented. First, concepts such as activation records, control link, access link, and pointer to the current activation are introduced to the students. Then, we show the implementation techniques of activation records and data access method the target computer by using debug tool for C++ development environment on C language programs. The approach proposed in this paper is applied in the compiler construction course, which deepens students’ understanding of programming language, and cultivates students’ abstract thinking, logical derivation and generalization ability. This approach method also helps to improve their programming skills.