CSCI.4430/6430 Programming Languages-- Fall 2015

• Linyun Fu: Wednesdays 9-11am, Thursdays 4-6pm.
• Antwane Mason: Mondays and Thursdays 9-11am.

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Announcements

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Course Description

Pre-requisites

CSCI.2300 Introduction to Algorithms.

Course Themes

Programming Language Essentials. Functional, Concurrent, and Logic Programming Paradigms.

Learning Outcomes

When the students have successfully completed this course, they will be able to:

• understand the essential aspects of programming languages, including theoretical foundations such as the lambda calculus, the actor model, and first-order logic.
• design and develop functional, concurrent (including distributed and mobile), and logic programs.
• compare multiple programming paradigms and know when to apply them to solve different problems.

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Course Contents

1. Introduction
• Brief history of programming languages
• Essentials
• Syntax
• Semantics
• Paradigms
• Functional
• Object-Oriented
• Concurrent
• Logic
2. Functional Programming
• Lambda calculus
• Scope of variables
• Data abstraction/control abstraction
• Static/dynamic scoping
• Parameter passing mechanisms
• Expression evaluation orders
• Types
• Recursion
• Higher-order programming
• Lazy evaluation
• State (imperative programming)
3. Concurrent Programming
• Actor model
• Synchronous vs asynchronous communication, message passing
• Concurrent functional programming and concurrent object-oriented programming
• State encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism
• Named tokens, join blocks, first-class continuations
• Universal naming, remote message passing, migration (distributed and mobile computing)
• Dataflow variables, suspendable statements (declarative concurrency)
4. Logic Programming
• Predicate calculus, first-order logic, Horn clauses
• Resolution and unification
• Search and backtracking
• Difference lists, definite clause grammars
• Dynamically updating knowledge base and modifying search methods.

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Tentative Course Syllabus

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Reading Material

• Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming by Peter Van Roy and Seif Haridi.   MIT Press 2004. Chs 1,2,3,4,6,7. (Required Textbook)
• URL:  http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/people/PVR/book.html
• Programming Distributed Computing Systems: A Foundational Approach by Carlos A. Varela.   MIT Press 2013. Chs 2,4,9. (Required Textbook)
• URL:  http://wcl.cs.rpi.edu/pdcs/
• Programming Language Pragmatics by Michael L. Scott.   Morgan Kaufmann Publishers 2009, 3rd Edition.  Ch. 11. (Recommended Textbook)
• URL:  http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/scott/pragmatics/
• Essentials of Programming Languages by Friedman, Wand, and Haynes. MIT Press, 2nd Edition. Ch. 4. (Recommended Textbook)
• URL:  http://www.cs.indiana.edu/eopl/

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Software

• Haskell
• Oz
• Erlang
• SALSA
• Prolog

Grading

The course consists of three main parts, covering respectively functional, concurrent, and logic programming. Evaluation for each part includes a programming assignment and a partial exam.

For functional programming, we will use Haskell and Oz. For concurrent programming, we will use SALSA and Erlang. For logic programming, we will use Prolog and Oz. You can choose any of the two supported programming languages per paradigm for programming assignments. Programming assignments can be done either individually or in pairs. Do not show your code to any other group and do not look at any other group's code. Do not put your code in a public directory or otherwise make it public. You are encouraged to use the LMS Discussions page to post questions so that other students can also answer/see the answers. There will be three grace days for late submissions throughout the semester, to be used in any combination of PAs, e.g., PA1 may be one day late and PA3 may be two days late, as long as PA2 was submitted on time. Late assignments beyond the three day grace period will receive a grade of 0.

Students may use for reference during exams: physical textbooks, printed course slides, and one personal one-sided crib sheet. No electronics will be allowed. All exam answers must be the student's own. Exam grades may be curved.

We will use an adaptive weighting scheme for grades: The best two programming assignments will have a total grade weight of 40% (20% each), while the third one will have a weight of 10%. We will use the same adaptive weighting scheme for partial exams: the best two exam grades will be worth 40% of the total grade with the third one counting for 10% of the total grade. Final letter grades will then be assigned as follows:

Academic Integrity

Please contact the instructor if there is any question about academic (dis)honesty.