CS170 Home Page

CSCI170

Analysis of Programming Languages

Instructor

Frederic Green, Mathematics/Computer Science, BP334, ext. 7410. E-mail: fgreen (at) clarku (dot) edu.

Office Hours:

Tuesdays 2:30-4:30 and Thursdays 1:15-4:30pm. Or by appointment.

Teaching Assistants with Lab hours

Alan Ruan (ARuan at-sign clarku dot edu).
Consultation Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 7:30-9:30.

Text

Programming Languages, Principles and Practice (Third Edition) by Kenneth C. Louden and Kenneth A. Lambert (Cengage Learning, 2012). Purchase or rent here.

Meeting Times

Lectures: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:25-11:40am, BP326; Labs: Tuesdays at 12-1:15pm, BP310.

Course Goals

To understand the principles underlying the design and implementation of programming languages. We will study the principles involved in specifying language syntax and semantics, drawing on specific examples from various programming languages, look at some of the basic principles of compilers and interpreters, and examine the main alternative approaches to programming language design (imperative, functional, object-oriented, etc.). We will pay particular attention to the imperative and functional approach, since practical experience will be gained by writing part of a Scheme interpreter in C.

Course Work

Tests will consist of attendance/participation (10%), 4 or 5 half-hour quizzes (20%) and a final (30%), comprising 60% of the final grade. The remaining 40% will be determined by assignments, which include a couple of small programming assignments and a substantial project (see below).
Time committement: You should expect to spend an average of 13 hours per week in this course outside of class. This includes 1.25 hours in lab, about 2 hours reading and 10 hours on assignments or the project, all of which may include help sessions with TAs and professor.

The Project

Writing an interpreter might sound like a difficult task, but (at least for Scheme) it is really not that hard if you think about it the right way (and that's why we're here!). You will be given the basic input/output procedures on which the interpreter can be built. The project will be broken down into a set of five smaller, manageable assignments (detailed information will be given shortly). Grades are based on performance (does it work?), style, design and documentation.

Concerning Late Work

Your best course is to hand in work when it is due (reasonable excuses such as illness are acceptable provided they can be documented). Graded assignments are due at the stated time on the assignment. If you find you just cannot finish an assignment on time, please hand in whatever you have done anyway. I would rather see evidence that you are trying than nothing at all. If you are having trouble with any assignment, please do not hesitate to discuss it with me, either in person or via e-mail.

For project assignments I am more flexible. The project is designed to be self-paced to an extent, so the "deadlines" for project assignments are not strictly enforced. The price you pay for not submitting project assignments in on time is that you will get feedback on them later than if you did, and this diminishes your chances of completing the project. The project grade is ultimately based how far you got with it, and how well it is coded (modularity, efficiency, documentation).

Some Words on Academic Honesty

Work that you hand in as your own is expected to be done by you and no one else. All work in this course is to be conducted in accordance with the Clark University Academic Integrity Policy. All instances of plagiarism are, following University policy, reported directly to the Dean of Academic Advising.

Course Syllabus

In part to facilitate the project, in the beginning we will start by diving into an introduction to C, which will anticipate (informally) many of the issues we will encounter later on in greater generality. Likewise, we will follow that with a quick introduction to Scheme that will serve the same purpose for functional languages. Readings are indicated in brackets. Sections/chapters in Louden are preceded by an "L" or "AS" (Abelson and Sussman, for more in-depth readings on Scheme). Some topics (denoted "Lecture") are only partially covered in the readings or not at all. Quiz dates to be announced (with at least one week's notice). This syllabus is approximate and subject to change.

Date(s)	Topic	Reading
1/14	Introduction and Overview	L1
1/16 - 1/21	Introduction to C	C Notes, Lecture, L11.3
1/21 - 1/28	Scheme	L3.1-3.2, AS Chapter 1
1/30 - 2/6	Syntax and Parsing	L6
2/11 - 2/18	Syntax, Basic Semantics	L6, L7
2/20	Basic Semantics	L7
2/25	Basic Semantics	L7
2/27	Scheme internal representation	Lecture, L3.2, AS 2.2.1-2.2.2
3/3 - 3/5	SPRING BREAK
3/10	Data Types	L8
3/12	Data Types
3/17	Control	L8
3/19	Control	L10
3/24 - 4/2	Object-Oriented Programming	L5
4/7	Scheme Interpretation	Lecture
4/9	Formal Semantics	L13
4/14 - 4/16	More Functional Programming	L3.3 - 3.4
4/21 - 4/23	Logic Programming	L12
4/23	Review (last day of course)