| C311/A596: Programming Languages (Fall 98) |
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/classes/c311/
This course provides an introduction to the foundations of programming languages, allowing a thorough understanding of programming language semantics and critical implementation characteristics. This provides the basis for the best choice and use of existing languages, as well as language design.
Interpreters and other language-processing programs are used throughout to present the essential elements of programming languages in a precise, analytic, manner. The extensive use of interpreters in this course also develops skill in meta-linguistic abstraction -- a powerful programming paradigm. Scheme is used as a meta-programming language throughout much of the course, but this course is about fundamentals that are the basis for most programming languages, not just Scheme.
To thoroughly understand programming languages (or most any topic), it is necessary to have a variety of models, or views, at varying levels of abstraction. In this course we will employ a range of models from very high-level (almost mathematical semantics) to very low-level (almost assembly language), and emphasize the connections between levels.
The last part of the course will focus on a variety of issues in object-oriented programming and multi-tasking, with emphasis on these facilities in Java.
(A slide presentation, available in condensed form, summarizes these points and others.)
The Java Programming Language, by
Arnold and Gosling, second edition. (Addison-Wesley, ISBN
0201310066.)
The basic reference on the Java language, known hereafter
as JPL.
The Scheme
Programming Language (2nd edition), by Dybvig.
(Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-454646-6.)
A standard reference on Scheme programming.
Read the indicated material for each week before the week begins! Chapter, section, and exercise numbers refer to EOPL unless otherwise indicated. You are not expected to understand the material on first reading, but having read it once you will be much better prepared for class and discussion sections. Read the material for the first two weeks in the first week (much of it should be review).
The following syllabus is still tentative and incomplete. Adjustments will be reflected on this page as we go.
For the most part, assignments will be handed in by email to an automatic checker with feedback emailed back almost immediately. Assignments may be prepared on the system of your choice, but should run properly using Chez Scheme version 5. Homework will be graded by hand, but the automatic checker will detect some errors.
You are welcome (in fact, encouraged) to collaborate with others in the class, tutors, etc., but in every case, if you have received help on an assignment from anyone other than the instructor or associate instructor of the course, their names should be indicated at the beginning of the assignment. Though you are encouraged to work on assignments in groups, each individual is responsible for submitting their own copy of each assignment.
An assignment will be posted below, usually each week before Wednesday's class and due by midnight on Thursday of the following week. Late assignments will not be accepted.
| # | Assignment | Due | Solution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Basic Scheme | R 9/10 @ 11:59pm | assign1.ss |
| - | QUIZ | - | quiz.ss |
| 2 | Static Properties, Parsing | T 9/22 @ 11:59pm | assign2.ss |
| 3 | Simple Interpreters | R 10/1 @ 11:59pm | assign3.ss |
| 4 | Assignment | Mon 10/12 @ 11:59pm | assign4.ss |
| 5 | Dynamic scope | Sun 10/18 @ 11:59pm | assign5.ss |
| - | FIRST EXAM | - | exam1.html |
| 6 | CPS | Sun 11/2 @ 11:59pm | assign6.ss |
| 7 | Data structure representation | Sun 11/8 @ 11:59pm | assign7.ss |
| 8 | CPS with registers and stacks | Sun 11/15 @ 11:59pm | assign8.ss |
| - | SECOND EXAM | - | exam2.ss |
| 9 | Java inheritance | M 12/7 @ 11:59pm | assign9 |
| 10 | Classes, interfaces, and overloading | F 12/11 @ 11:59pm | assign10.java |
Attendance at discussion sections is mandatory. Often a problem or set of problems will be given out at the beginning of discussion section and the class will be broken up into small groups to solve the problems. The AI leading the discussion section will go between groups answering questions and asking questions about the work done so far and about the class material. Your answers to these questions, and your progress on the problems given in discussion section, will count toward your final grade.
Some lectures may also be conducted in this manner, and some other lectures will present material not found in the book. Don't miss class!
Our web has information on use of Scheme at IU, including emacs support. With this emacs support loaded, you can reduce indentation, for example on the line following type-case, by selecting the menu option Scheme->Indentation->indent for CPS.
The DrScheme programming environment is also highly recommended. It is installed on UITS systems, and is free if you would like to install it on your own Windows95/NT or Unix system.
We will be using a few
Scheme extensions not mentioned in
EOPL. The define-record and variant-case
syntactic extensions used in the book are available in Chez Scheme by loading record.ss.
Points will be deducted on the homework, quiz, and exams if the cardinal rules of indentation are violated, so make it a habit to follow them whenever you write Scheme code. This will greatly aid your Scheme programming.
Though emacs is a big help, it is strongly suggested that you write solutions to all exercises by hand and check them carefully for correctness before approaching a computer. This will give you practice at indentation by hand (which is necessary for exams) and, more importantly, it is in most cases much easier to find mistakes in this course's exercises by thinking about them than by debugging.
The assignments don't count a whole lot toward your grade, but extensive experience has shown that students who do not make a serious effort to do the assignments do poorly on exams. Experience has also shown that if most students spent much more time with paper and pencil before approaching a computer, they would spend much less time debugging, and better understand their programs. An hour with a pencil is often worth several at the keyboard!
If you're having difficulty, don't hesitate to see the instructor or AI during office hours. If these times are not convenient, see us after class or discussion, or contact us by email or phone, to set up another time. We're here to help you!
The following is a tentative schedule for evaluation, with approximate percentage contributions to the final grade.
The sample exams are provided only to provide a general idea of what to expect. The content of the course this semester differs somewhat.
Before the end of the semester, please complete the electronic Course evaluation forms for Chris Haynes and your discussion section AI, Ayse Koprulu, will become available via links here.