milestone: Group Formation and Project Preparation

This milestone is intended to prepare you for the JOOS compiler enhancements and WIG compiler from-scratch implementation that you will complete in this course. The WIG project will be essentially the same as in previous years, and you are encouraged to look over the past pages linked to from the top of the home page. The JOOS deliverables will also be quite similar to previous years. In the future, the precise requirements for each milestone and deliverable for this year will be updated at least one week in advance of their due dates.

For this milestone, first go through all the interview questions with the other members of your group. You do not have to share all of the information you submitted individually if you do not want to. Then answer the following questions:

  1. What do the members of your group have in common? What are the differences between members? What are the strengths of each member?
  2. Which compiler compiler toolset do you think you will use? Why? There is no need to repeat the reasons to use C / Java discussed in class. Note that for the next milestone you will extend the Tiny language using flex+bison, SableCC 2, and if you are feeling adventurous SableCC 3 or whatever other alternative tool you wish to use for your compiler instead. This is to give you some experience with all toolsets and let you change your mind before it is too late.
  3. What problems, if any, do you anticipate in the functioning of your group?
  4. What are your plans for scheduling future group meetings?
  5. What are your plans for dividing the work? What are the roles for each member? How will you ensure that every member knows how the different parts of the compiler work? Describe your software development strategy.
Answer these questions in a plain text ASCII file called preparation.txt. Please make sure that each line is less than 80 characters wide. Check it in to SVN as group-X/reports/preparation.txt, where X is your group number. This milestone is due by midnight on Friday of week 3. The grade will be wrapped into the following week's milestone. Marks will be generously deducted for late submissions.

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