Google Summer of Code

[Andrea Bernardini <andrebask at gmail dot com>]

Hi, 
I'm a student at Politecnico di Milano [1] (Milan, Italy), at the
second year of the Engineering Of Computing Systems MSc. I'd like to
apply for the Google Summer of Code, so I'm writing here to ask some
questions about KAWA project ideas.  

I'm looking for a project that can make me learn how a real compiler
works. I have a course in the second semester regarding compiler
construction [2], and the opportunity to get course credit developing a
GSoC project.

I have only basic knowledge in formal languages, compilers and low
level architectures, and no experience in compilers development, so I
need to reason about the feasibility of the project. I noticed this
entry in your project ideas page, that you call a fairly small starter
project [3]:

Optimize switches (case)
Implement SwitchExp as a new class extending Expression, and compile it
using the existing gnu.bytecode.SwitchState. Use it to optimize
Schemeâs case form. This might be better done without a new Expression,
but instead using a special Procedure with custom âvalidationâ and
code-generation.

Could it be a reasonable project for a student with few experience in
compilers? 
Is there an other project that could be a good starting point? 

Thanks

Andrea Bernardini

[1] http://www.polimi.it/en/english-version/
[2] http://bit.ly/1jHIKZH
[3] http://www.gnu.org/software/kawa/Ideas-and-tasks.html