Textbook

"Modern Compiler Implementation in ML" by Andrew W. Appel, Cambridge University Press, 1998.
This textbook is recommended, not required. (Link to ebook via Harvard University library; Link for purchase/rental via Harvard Coop)

Development Environment

See the Tool Chain page for instructions on setting up your local development environment.

OCaml Resources

Learning

Textbooks
- CS51 Textbook
- Introduction to Objective Caml by Jason Hickey
- Real World OCaml by Yaron Minsky and Anil Madhavapeddy
- See https://ocaml.org/learn/books.html for a list of additional books, some of which are available free online.
Standard library documentation: https://ocaml.org/manual/4.14/api/index.html
The following documentation may be particularly useful as you work on your assignments.
- Sets:https://ocaml.org/manual/4.14/api/Set.Make.html
- Maps: https://ocaml.org/manual/4.14/api/Map.Make.html
Everything you need to know and more, in the language reference manual: https://ocaml.org/manual/4.14/index.html
Code examples: http://ocaml.org/learn/tutorials/99problems.html

Style

Some students have asked for more clarity about how we've been assigning style points. Here's some info...

Compiler warnings lead to the biggest deduction -- we consistently take off points for these.

We also take off points for code that, in the judgment of the grader, is very hard to read, either because of poor formatting, lack of documentation (including lack of type annotations where they'd be useful), or departure from OCaml idiom. You can find OCaml style guides online (like this one or this one). There is not a specific style we recommend, but it is helpful to be internally consistent in your code.

CS51 Design and Style Checklist

Miscellaneous Resources

Compiler Explorer https://godbolt.org/. Interactively explore how various common compilers translate to LLVM and assembly.
Debuggers
- LLDB https://lldb.llvm.org/. Debug x86 and LLVM code.
- Online GDB https://www.onlinegdb.com/online_gcc_assembler. Debug x86 assembly code.