CSci 450-01: Organization of Programming Languages
CSci 503-01: Fundamental Concepts in Languages
Fall 2014 Syllabus

Locations

The Fall 2014 class meets in 106 Weir Hall at 9:00 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. (Because of class size, CSci 503 may meet at a different time.)

The class is taught by Prof. Conrad Cunningham, whose office is in 203 Weir Hall. Prof. Cunningham's voice telephone number is (662) 915-5358 and fax number is (662) 915-5623. His WWW home page is http://www.cs.olemiss.edu/~hcc/ and his email address is hcc AT cs DOT olemiss DOT edu. The official office hours for this class are 1:00 p.m. until 2:30 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays and by appointment at other times.

The WWW home page for this class is http://www.cs.olemiss.edu/~hcc/csci450/.

The final examination for this class is scheduled for Wednesday, 10 December at 8:00 a.m.

Student Disabilities Services Statement

"It is the responsibility of any student with a disability who requests a reasonable accommodation to contact the Office of Disability Services (915-7128). Contact will then be made by that office through the student to the instructor of this class. The instructor will then be happy to work with the student so that a reasonable accommodation of any disability can be made."

Course Descriptions from Catalog

CSci 450: Organization of Programming Languages: History and concepts of programming languages; run-time behavior; formal aspects; language definition; data types and structures; control; and data flow, compilation and interpretation.

CSci 503: Fundamental Concepts in Languages: An intensive study of the fundamental concepts of programming languages and the associated software system structures. Computer science graduate students only.

-- Which course should I take?

CSci 450, Organization of Programming Languages, is a core undergraduate course required for BSCS and BA students. Undergraduate students should enroll in CSci 450 instead of CSci 503. CSci 503 is restricted to graduate students.

CSci 503, Fundamental Concepts in Languages, is a transition course designed for students with undergraduate degrees in related fields who wish to study computer science at the graduate level but who need to strengthen their backgrounds in programming language paradigms and organization. Enrollment in this courses is limited to computer science graduate students who have been admitted in conditional, qualifying, or nondegree standing. Qualifying and nondegree students must have the permission of both the Department and the Graduate School to enroll. Credit for this course cannot be applied to MS or PhD degrees in computer science.

Graduate students in other fields should not enroll in this class. (We do not currently have the capacity to handle additional students.)

Prerequisites

CSci 450: CSci 211 and 223 with minimum grades of C-
CSci 503: Computer Science graduate students only

Course Outcomes/Objectives (under development)

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. understand the fundamental principles underlying various programming language features
2. understand and apply ideas from different programming paradigms such as functional, imperative, modular, object-oriented, and logic
3. design and implement simple programming languages

Source Materials

Programming language concepts

• William R. Cook, Anatomy of Programming Languages, 2013, online draft.

Functional programming using Haskell

• H. Conrad Cunningham. Notes on Functional Programming with Haskell (under revision).
• Miron Lipovaca. Learn You a Haskell for Great Good: A Beginner's Guide, online tutorial (also in print from No Starch Press, 2011).
• The Haskell Platform 2014.2.0.0 available free from http://www.haskell.org for Windows, Mac, and Linux--bundles Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC) 7.8.3 and common libraries.

Multiparadigm programming using Lua

• Roberto Ierusalimshcy. Programming in Lua, Third Edition, Lua.org, Rio de Janiero, 2013 (covers Lua 5.2).
• Lua 5.1 (mostly used) or 5.2 can be downloaded from http://www.lua.org or various other repositories.

Logic programming using Prolog

• Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos, and Kristina Striegnitz. Learn Prolog Now, online tutorial (also in print from College Publications, 2006).
• SWI Prolog, stable release 6.6.6, can be downloaded from http://www.swi-prolog.org/ or various other repositories.

Course Topics (under development)

1. History of programming languages
2. Programming paradigms
3. Functional programming using Haskell
4. Basic concepts of language design and implementation
5. Dynamic imperative programming using Lua
6. Modular programming
7. Prototype-based object-oriented programming using Lua
8. (insufficient time Fall 2014) Logic programming using Prolog

Professional Conduct

As a student in CSci 450/503, you are expected to conduct yourself in a professional manner according to the Honor Code of the School of Engineering, the Information Technology (IT) Appropriate Use Policy, the M Book, and any other relevant policies.

Limited Collaboration Policy. Unless otherwise indicated, any homework assignment or programming exercise given in this class will be an individual assignment. The work you submit is to reflect the knowledge, understanding, and skill that you have attained as an individual. However, the instructor does want to encourage the development of a community of scholars who are actively engaged in discussion of the ideas related to this course. With this in mind, you are allowed to discuss solutions of the homework and programming problems with other students if done so according to the following guidelines:

• You may discuss ideas for homework and programming assignments with your classmates. However, you cannot collaborate on writing the solution or the program code. That is, you can talk about the problems and ideas for solving them, but you cannot write things down with anyone else. You are, of course, prohibited from copying or seeing another student's written solution, and you are not allowed to show your work to anyone else. Similarly, you are not allowed to copy text or program code from a book or a page on the Web unless explicitly authorized to do so by the instructor.

• You should accept help with care. If you work too closely with another student, you might mislead yourself into believing that you understand the concepts and techniques better than you actually do. Don't forget that the instructor has office hours and can probably give you hints or suggestions to get you started.

• You should give help with care. Do not help anyone too much. When you have solved a problem, it is tempting to just tell other students how you solved it. Instead, try to allow them to come to the solution on their own. Maybe give them a hint to help them get "over a hump." Remember that helping someone too much will hurt them in the long term if they can't work through problems on the exams by themselves. So avoid the temptation to do so. If you can't help other students without giving away the whole solution, direct them to see the instructor (who may or may not have a way to "edge" them toward the solution).

• You are not obligated to help anyone. If you feel uncomfortable helping another student for any reason, please direct them to see the instructor.

• Except as described above, all work in this class is covered by the School of Engineering's Honor Code statement on plagiarism. It is plagiarism "to knowingly deceive, copy, paraphrase, or otherwise misrepresent your work in a manner inconsistent with professional conduct".

Grading

• The grading scale for this class is A [90..100], B [80..90), C [70..80), D [60..70), and F [0..60). However, the instructor will use the +/- grading scale, as appropriate, to provide more fine-grained grading within these ranges.
• Two-thirds of the semester grade will come from the exam average and one-third from the homework assignment average.

Assignments and Projects

• All students are expected to study the relevant portions of the textbooks and handouts in conjunction with our class discussions (i.e., before coming to class). Explicit reading assignments will not always be given. If in doubt on what you need to read, please ask the instructor.
• Several programs will be assigned during the semester. We will use two or more different languages. There may also be written assignments or short quizzes.
• Unless otherwise stated in the assignment description, an assignment is to be carried out by each individual student without inappropriate collaboration with others. See the section on Professional Conduct.
• In preparing and submitting homework assignments make sure that:
  • your name, the course number or name, the assignment identifier, and individual exercises are clearly indicated in the content of the file or on the paper. (If it is a group assignment, give the group identifier and the names of all members.)
  • for any handwritten portions, you write legibly on only one side of the paper in a black or blue pen or dark pencil. Do NOT use red or green ink!
  • your pages are stapled together in the upper left corner when viewed from the front.
• All students are expected to complete their homework assignments by their due dates. If an assignment is submitted late, a penalty of 10 percent of that assignment's grade will be assessed for each day it is late. A homework paper will not be accepted after graded papers have been returned, after a solution has been distributed, or after the final examination.

Examinations

• There will be three mid-term examinations and a final exam.
  • Original: All exams are equally weighted in the exam portion of the final grade.
  • Modification: The lowest grade of the three mid-term and one final exam will be dropped and the other three grades will contribute 20 percent toward the course grade. Each student must also take a multiple choice assessment exam, which will contribute 6.67 percent of the final course grade.
• Tentatively, the mid-term examinations will be given in mid-September, mid-October, and mid-November.
• The final examination will be given during the final examination period published by the Registar's office. Please do not ask to take the final examination earlier than the time set for the entire class.
• Each exam will cover all topics studied to that point. The final exam is comprehensive over all material covered during the semester.
• Each exam may consist of a combination of in-class and take-home components.
• If you cannot take an examination at the scheduled time because of an illness or other special circumstances, please notify Prof. Cunningham in advance. Without advance notification, it may not be possible to give a make-up examination.

UP to CSci 450/503 root document?