CS471 Programming Language Structure I
Fall, 1997
Instructor
Roger Hartley, SH 148, telephone 646-1218
Office Hours: Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays 10:00 am - 12:00 noon; also by appointment.
Email: rth@cs.nmsu.edu
Internet: http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~rth/cs
Where and when
Room: SH113 Time: TTh 1:10 - 2:25 pm
Textbook:
Programming Languages, Concepts and Structures. Ravi Sethi, Addison Wesley, 2nd. Edition, 1996.
Course outline
This course presents a survey of computer languages from a conceptual point of view. There are relatively few concepts which all computer languages have and most have them in common. The differences among them are mostly in their syntax and their model of computation, or their programming methodology. We will examine the basic concepts as they arise in a variety of different languages, and discuss how the
implementation of the concepts affect their usage as programming tools. When a major language is discussed, a language system that works in our domain will be used to help the discussion.
Syllabus, by week number
[1] Introduction: models of computation, real and virtual machines, taxonomy of languages
[2] Description methodologies: syntax, semantics, pragmatics. BNF and Extended BNF.
[3, 4] Elements of programming languages: expressions, functions, declarations, values, recursion, scope, types.
[5, 6] Imperative languages: the assignment statement. Algol60, Pascal, Modula 2, C, Ada. Structured programming. Control flow. Pointers.
[7] Procedures: environments and stores, parameter passing.
[8] First test. More on procedures: activation records, block structure, dynamic allocation.
[9] Encapsulation: modules and information hiding, classes in C++. Java.
[10] Inheritance: Smalltalk 80, methods and messages.
[11, 12] Functional programming: Scheme and Lisp, list processing, ML and type checking.
[12, 13, 14] Logic programming: Prolog. Relations and declarative programming, backtracking goal evaluation.
[15] Concurrency: parallel hardware, synchronization, deadlock, rendezvous in Ada.
[15, 16] Advanced topics: abstract and concrete syntax, operational semantics through an definitional interpreter, lambda calculus for types.
[17] Final examination.
Calendar
August
|
Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
|
|
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
|
|
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
|
|
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
20th : classes start |
|
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
20th : last day to add |
|
31 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
September
|
Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
1st : Labor day |
|
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
|
|
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
|
|
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
|
|
28 |
29 |
30 |
|
|
|
|
|
October
|
Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
|
|
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
10th : first exam. |
|
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
15th : last day to drop |
|
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
|
|
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
|
|
November
|
Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
|
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
|
|
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
|
|
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
|
|
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
26th to 28th : thanksgiving holiday |
|
30 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
December
|
Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
5th : Last day of classes |
|
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
Exam week, 12th : Last day |
|
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
|
|
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
|
|
28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
|
|
|
|
Assessment
There will be a mid-term test and a final comprehensive examination, which may be take-home. There will also be a number of homework assignments (four or five) taken from the exercises in the textbook, or from other material. The proportion of credit is as follows:
Test 1: 20%
Final: 40%
Homework: 40%
My grading is always flexible, but justice will also be done! The penalty for late work is that it receives a maximum B grade for up to one week late and a maximum C grade after that.