University of Leicester – Department of Computer Science

CO7206 - Fall 2003 - Lab 7: Source Code Transformation Using TXL

20 / Nov. / 2003  

Objective: (1) Learning TXL Basics

TXL is a structure transformation language that can be applied in a variety of contexts. In this lab, students will try out TXL tool suite and will try and extend some TXL programs. This will get them acquainted with TXL and ready to write further source code transformations.

Task:

1-     Go to TXL page and download TXL.

2-     Download and compile sort.txl and run it on different inputs. A sample input file is here.

3-     Download and compile factorial.txl and run it on different inputs, e.g., this one. Extend it to accommodate for factorial 0 (0!) by writing a function that takes care of this case.

4-     Download this non-ambiguous expression grammar (+, *, -, /) and this TXL calculator program and run them on different inputs.

5-     Extend the non-ambiguous expression grammar to express exp(x,y), where exp(2,5) = 32. Then try it on this input. Also try it on this second input. If it worked on the first input but not on the second, you may need to change your grammar a bit to accommodate for expressions like exp(x,exp(y, z)).

6-     Check your answers against the sample programs below or have a look at these programs if you are stuck.

* Note: It is required to learn as much TXL as you can to the point that you are able to solve TXL lab. problems, assignment, etc. comfortably..

Resources:

q       Amble Resources are found on the TXL page

q       TXL Documentation

q       A brief guide on how to write a TXL program

q       An Factorial Program with fact0 function

q       A non-ambiguous expression grammar  (+, *, -, /, exp(., .)). Here are the rules that implement the TXL calculator with exp. Here is an alternative solution with recursive functions.

q       A non-ambiguous expression grammar  (+, *, -, /, exp(., .)) that allows exp(x,exp(y, z)).

q       More examples