Winter 2026, CSCI 512, Test 2 Review

Quick review: Chapters 3, 4, and 6 in your text.

Topic review:

• Chapter 3 -- Names, Scopes, and Bindings
• Binding times
• Object lifetime and storage management: global, stack, heap, garbage collectors
• Scope Rules: static, nested subroutines, nested scopes, ...
• Access to non-local objects, reference environments
• Declarations vs Definitions
• Modules, imports, exports, objects
• Dynamic scope
• Scope search rules
• Aliases, overloading, operator overloading
• Reference Environments: Deep vs Shallow bindings, closures
• First class, second class and third class values
• Macro expansions and issues with macros
• Chapter 4 -- Program Semantics
• Core idea of semantics, things not defined by a CFG
• Abstract Syntax Trees -- output of a parser
• Building an AST, checking semantics as part of AST building
• One pass compiler and operation
• Dynamic semantics vs Static semantics
• Chapter 6 -- Control Flow
• Order of operations is control flow
• expression evaluation -- precedence, associativity, parenthesis
• Issues with precedence in languages
• standard associativity
• language examples of precedence
• programmer defined precedence and associativity
• Assignment as operators in expressions
• language classes: pure functional, mostly functional, mostly imperative with functional features, imperative
• l-value, r-values, assignment issues
• Orthogonality of features
• Side effects and assignment
• Initialization
• Operator ordering
• Short circuit evaluation
• Assembly language flow control
• Goto statement, issues, "goto letter", goto from deep in code
• Functions as flow control
• Exception methods, deep returns
• Continuations
• Sequencing
• Selection, if statements (varieties), switch/case statements
• Iteration, logic controlled, enumeration controlled
• Various looping constructs in languages
• Iterators, iterator functions, iterator classes

• A Pascal for loop looks like: "for cv := e1 to e2 do s;"
1. e1 and e2 are both evaluated at loop entry
2. e1 is evaluated at loop entry, e2 is evaluated before each time through the loop
3. cv is a read only "variable".
4. s is always executed at least once.
• What is a continuation?
• Explain an access method to non-global, non-local variables in a language with nested procedures and functions.