ICD1 - Compiler Overview, Scanner

Question 1

When viewing programming languages as natural languages, the word ANSWER is used instead of `words’.

Answer 1

tokens

Question 2

The routine in a compiler that takes as input a sequence of characters outputs these characters grouped into meaningful units is called ANSWER.

Answer 2

a lexical analyzer

Question 3

The specifications for how to group characters into meaningful units are traditionally written as ANSWER.

Answer 3

regular expressions

Question 4

The specifications of how to group characters into meaningful basic units of a programming language are generally implemented in code that has the abstract form of ANSWER.

Answer 4

a finite state machine

Question 5

When viewed abstractly, a language is defined as a set of ANSWER.

Answer 5

strings

Question 6

The Greek letter epsilon, when talking about languages, is used to represent ANSWER.

Answer 6

the empty string

Question 7

In automatically generating the code that reads characters and outputs the part of a programming language that is analogous to its words, we start with a specification and then traditionally convert it into code in two stages. In the first stage, we produce ANSWER.

Answer 7

a nondeterministic finite state machine

Question 8

In automatically generating the code that reads characters and outputs the part of a programming language that is analogous to its words, we start with a specification and then traditionally convert it into code in two stages. The main problem that can arise in moving from the first stage to the second stage is ANSWER.

Answer 8

an exponential explosion in the number of states needed