Low-Level Programming

Official Title

194.190 Low-Level Programming (VU, 4SWS, 6ECTS)

Curricula

Mandatory elective course in the Master program "Software Engineering"

Course dates

Register on TISS. Please register before the end of the day of the first lecture. Accounts will be created on the next day.

Lecture date: Wednesday, 16:15-18:00, starting on 2026-10-07, EI1 (Old EI, Gusshausstrasse 25, 2nd Floor).

After the lecture part there are presentations of the student projects (the exercise part) at the same date.

Other dates:

  2026-10-22  0:00 Group registration starts
  2026-11-11 23:55 Group registration ends
  2026-11-12  0:00 Presentation registration starts
  2026-12-07 23:55 Presentation registration ends
  2026-12-09 16:15 Presentations start

Remote participation and videos

This semester you can participate remotely in the lectures remotely in the lectures.

If I remember to press the "record" button, a recording will be available several hours after the end of the lecture in the same location. However, you will miss the option of asking questions.

Overview

While most application software is written in high-level programming languages, at the bottom of the software stack there is a foundation of low-level programming. This course discusses the reasons for low-level programming and its problems in security and reliability. It also provides competencies in low-level programming, including programming languages and debugging.

Memory organization in various kinds of software. Memory safety. Programming in Forth. Programming in Rust. Methods and tools, in particular for debugging.

Security problems of low-level programming. Systems programming. Run-time systems for high-level programming languages.

Practical exercises

Until 2026-10-14: Work through the assignments of the Forth Tutorial up to and including section "Memory Tutorial".
Until 2026-10-21: Work through the remaining assignments of the Forth Tutorial.
As soon as practical: Exercises 3

Project, Group and Deliverables

The group size depends on the number of participants. This year the group size probably is 5-7.

Write a project (65h of work per person) of your own choice in a low-level language, that performs a task or profitably uses an implementation approach that is not possible in a high-level language like Java or Python.

Present what the program does and how it is implemented. In the presentation, point out the program parts that cannot be implemented in a high-level language.

You present the problem and its programmatic solution in a presentation with up to 18 minutes for the whole group.

Course notes

Slides for the lecture will be updated as the semester progresses.

Forth Tutorial

Lecturer

Anton Ertl