Cal Poly Pomona Computer Science CS 311 Formal Languages and Automata Theory Projects Computer Science Major Vicky Ding

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CS 311 Language Translation and Automata (4 units)
Introduction to language translation. Regular expressions. Finite automata. Lexical analysis. Context-free
grammars and push down automata. Syntax analysis. 4 lectures/problem-solving. Prerequisites: CS241 and
CS264 with grades of C or better, or consent of instructor.
Cal Poly Pomona - CS311 - Fall 2007
Prof. John Fisher
jrfisher@csupomona.edu
Computer Science Department
California State Polytechnic University
Pomona, California, USA
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Course Data
Time: MW 4-6 PM
Place: 8 302
Office & Hours: MW 3-4
Grading: 8 quizes (Wednesdays on weeks 3 - 10) 60% and final 40%.
Textbook -- Theory
J. Martin, Introduction to Languages and the Theory of Computation, 3rd ed., McGraw Hill, 2003.
Practical Resources -- Implementation
ANTLR v3 provides a methodology for parsing inputs whose theoretical syntactic structures are studied in
this course (and more ...).
CS311 Schedule
Week Mon Wed
1 Sep. 24 Sep. 26
2 Oct. 1 Oct. 3
3 Oct. 8
Oct. 10
Quiz1
4 Oct. 15 Oct. 17

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Quiz2
5 Oct. 22
Oct. 24
Quiz3
6 Oct. 29
Oct. 31
Quiz4
7 Nov. 5
Nov. 7
Quiz5
8 Holiday
Nov. 14
NO Quiz
9 Nov. 19
Nov. 21
Quiz6
10 Nov. 26
Nov. 28
Quiz7
11 FINAL EXAM :-)
Week 1
I am attending a conference in Macau, China (near Hong Kong), presenting a research paper at ICTAC'07 on
"Skolem machines" (Colloquium paper). The first regular, in-class lecture will be on Monday, October 1.
A. Reading assignment: §1.5 of the Martin textbook. Try the following homework problems: 1.38 through
1.47 (on pgs. 37 and 38).
B. Read §3.2 of the Martin textbook. More of Chapter 3 next week.
C. Locate the "regex" package in the Java documentation. Quickly read the class descriptions for the classes
in this package. The package has classes and methods for specifying regular expressions and matching them
against strings (which is content of Chapter 3 of Martin text). More about this next week.
D. Click on the ANTLR link above and browse around there. Try to anticipate what this is about, even
though first reading may be somewhat obscure (no matter ;-).
Week 2
Chapter 3. Problems #3.1 through 3.10.
Week 3
Problems #3.19, 3.20, 3.43 and 3.46

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Quiz on Wednesday: Given simple language description, find a regular expression for the language and draw
a FA to accept it.
§3.5, constructions for union, intersection, difference of regular languages.
Problem #3.33.
Start Chapter 4, definition of NFA, convert NFA to DFA(FA).
Problems #4.2, 4,10.
Week 4
Monday: Hand back Quiz#1 & discussion. Homework problems from last week. Introduction to NFAs with
empty transitions. Homework problems #4.13, 4.16, 4.17, 4.20.
Wednesday: Quiz#2 -- one problem regarding "distinguishable strings", one problem converting NFA to
DFA.
Converting NFA-! to NFA. Homework problems: #4.28, 4.29.
Motivation for Kleene's theorem.
Week 5
Monday: Hand back Quiz#2 & discussion..
Worked problems (from assignments last week).
Kleene's Theorem (part 1), Problems #4.35, 4.36, 4.37.
Wednesday: Quiz#3. Two problems: a) !-elimination {one of #4.29(a-e)}, b) another NFA-->DFA using
subset construction.
Kleene's Theorem (part 2), Problem #4.38.
Week 6
Monday: Hand back Quiz#3 & discussion...
Homework problems from chapter 4.
This week we start Chapter 6 on context-free grammars. Topics from Chapter 5 will be worked in over the
next two weeks.
For monday, read §6.1. Homework #6.1, 6.2, 6.4
Wednesday: Quiz#4 includes one problem like #4.36, and one problem like #4.38.
Lecture (and examples) from §6.1, 6.2.
Week 7
Monday: Hand back Quiz#4.
Discuss homework problems #6.1, 6.2, 6.4.
Lecture on §6.3, 6.4

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Homework: #6.10 (a,b) draw NFAs, #6.11,6.12 (read), #6.13, #61.4, #6.15(read).
Wednesday: Quiz#5, one problem like #6.1(a-h), one problem FA <--> regular grammar.
Lecture on ambiguity, ANTLR demo.
Week 8
Monday: CP Holiday ;-)
Wednesday: Hand back Quiz#5, discussion.
NO QUIZ TODAY!
Lecture on §6.6.
Nullable variables demo (regarding Example 6.14, p.233).
Unit productions demo (regarding Example 6.15, p.237).
Chomsky Normal Form demo (regarding Example 6.16, p.239).
Homework problems: #6.22, 6.26, 6.32, 6.34, 6.35, 6.39
Week 9
Monday: Homework problems from last week.
Continue lectures on Chapter 7, PDAs. Homework problems: #7.4, 7.5, 7.8
Wednesday: Quiz#6 (one problem like 6.26, one like 6.39)
More on PDAs.
Week 10
Monday: Hand back Quiz#6, discuss. Lecture on topics from Chapter 5, and converting LL(1) CFG to top-
down parser using DPDA. Homework problem: #7.30 .
Quiz#7 takehome - due on Wednesday: #7.5.a (in textbook): Find a PDA for non-palindromes over {a,b}.
Explain how your PDA works. Show your PDA's behavior on abbab (accept) and abbba (cannot accept) and
abba (cannot accept).
Wednesday: Quiz#7 takehome due. Lecture: Some topics from Chapter 8. Review for final.
Final Exam
The final exam is Monday, December 3, 4-6 in 8/302.
The final is comprehensive. It will have about 10 questions. The questions will be either problems to work,
which are similar to the homework problems listed above and quiz problems, OR they might involve
definitions of terms.

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