Check my WWW page for up to date information, you are always welcome to send me e-mail.
Class meets from 2pm to 2:5pm Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays in Crawford, room 402. The zoom meetings are found on the FIT Canvas LMS.
CSE 4250 Programming Language Concepts. A survey of programming language concepts and design principles of programming paradigms (procedural, functional and logic). Topics include a history of programming languages, data types supported, control structures and run-time management of dynamic structures. Prerequisite: CSE 2010.
This is a course in comparative programming languages. We learn the fundamental concepts important to the field. We will study the major programming language paradigms: imperative, logic and functional. Among the other topics discussed are syntax, semantics, types and objects, exception handling, and modules. More broadly, it is the study of human to computer communication.
Why is the subject interesting? It is interesting as part of the quest for natural and precise communication.
Students are expected to know how to program in an imperative language like Java, C or Pascal, and to know about algorithms and data structures. Such material is taught in CSE 1001, 1002, 2010 in the undergraduate curriculum. Some mathematical sophistication is desirable. The more you know, the more you learn.
The textbook for the class is by Sebesta. The value of a textbook is that it provides more depth than can be covered in class: other topics, more examples, ideas to explore and so on.
Sebesta |
Robert W. Sebesta. Concepts of Programming Languages, eleventh edition. Boston, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 2016. ISBN13: 978-0-13-394302-3 |
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You may wish to read other textbooks that cover roughly the same material for a different perspective: Scott, Louden and Lambert, Tucker and Noonan, Mitchell, Stansifer.
Scott |
Michael Scott. Programming Languages, fourth edition. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, California, 2016. ISBN-13: 978-0124104099 |
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Mitchell |
Mitchell, John Clifford Concepts of Programming Languages. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN: 0-521-78098-5 |
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Stansifer |
Ryan Stansifer. The study of programming languages. Prentice Hall, 1995. ISBN: 0-13-726936-6 |
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Three kinds of supplementary course material are available on the Internet:
There will be one final exam (worth more than a midterm) In addition, we anticipate that there will be several projects. The grade for the course will be based 70 percent on the exams, 30 percent on the projects.
Students are expected to take the final exam at the scheduled time during finals week. Academic misconduct, such as representing someone else's work as your own, will result in a grade of 'F' for the class. Please read the CS honor code. If you receive ideas, code, or help from any source, be sure to give proper credit and acknowledgment.
Please note that all course work (homework, projects, exams, etc) is archived. This is done for two purposes: for review by accrediting agencies (for the purposes of maintaining the accreditation of the CS program), and to detect plagiarism.
There will be several projects in this course. The projects are not especially hard, but learning new languages takes time. Leave time to experiment and learn---that's the point of the projects. Do not wait until the last week to start the projects. It is wise to write at least one simple program in the language, before starting the project.
Writing a correct program is important, but learning to do it yourself is more important. Do talk to other students about solving the problems and about learning the languages, library, compilers, and program development tools. Do use the computer science CS help desk. But ... Do not look at other students' (current or previous) code for the projects. Do not spend your time searching for the project solutions on the Internet. Do not allow other students (current or future) to examine or copy your code for the projects. Do not buy and sell solutions to the projects. All programs are analyzed and a measure of similarity with other programs from many sources is calculated. Projects whose programs are very similar to other programs will receive no credit. This policy is necessary to ensure that students take reasonable action to avoid and prevent plagiarism, and to ensure the proper recognition of independent effort.
Include your name and e-mail address in all program files you submit for the projects. (Do not include your student number.) If you are working together, make sure your partner's name is also in the file. Here is an example header (using Java style comments):
/* * Author: student name, e-mail address * Author: partner name, e-mail address * Course: CSE 4250, Spring 2022 * Project: project tag, short project name * Implementation: compiler version */Your name or names on the code is your pledge that this work is solely your own effort. If you receive help from any source, you must include a note to that effect in the header. For example,
/* * Conversations with Don Knuth helped me figure out how to do IO. * The WWW site www.xxx.edu/yyy.html had a good explanation of the Knapsack problem. * The client/server example in van der Linden's book (figure 5.4) was the model * for my code. */
We will use electronic submissions. Projects are due at midnight. You may turn them in later at your own risk, but as soon as grading begins, no later assignments are accepted. Assignments turned in early might get some feedback which may improve the score. Only one person of the group should turn in the assignment.
Monday, 10 Jan 2022 | First lecture |
Monday, 17 Jan 2022 | Martin Luther King Jr. Day (No classes) |
Friday, 4 Feb 2022 | Project #1: FITstone Virtual Machine |
Friday, 11 Feb 2022 | Midterm Exam: Syntax & Semantics |
Friday, 18 March 2022 | Project #2: Egyptian Hieroglyphics |
Friday, 25 March 2022 | Midterm Exam: Polymorphism & Blocks |
Friday, 22 Apr 2022 | Project #3: Decoding Text |
Thursday, 5 May 2022 | Final Exam, 1-3pm: Functional & Logic |
Do not cheat on the exams; do not ask for or give code to others; do not buy or sell the solutions to the projects. Do not make solutions publicly available. The penalty for academic misconduct is a grade of 'F' for the course. Discussions with your classmates, with teaching assistants, at the help desk, or academic support center are encouraged. Know how to do exercises, know how to ask for help, and know how to help each other. Without student cooperation, the importance of course grades for individuals diminishes, as does the incentive for learning by doing it yourself. Please discourage your peers from cheating. You have more influence than I do. If you have evidence of academic misconduct, you should bring it to the attention of your instructor, or the department head.
Please note, that copies of some work (homework, projects, exams, etc) for classes may be kept on file. This is done for two purposes. For review by ABET, for the purposes of maintaining the accreditation of the CS program, and to detect plagiarism.
Reading assignment. Sebesta 11e, Chapter 1: Preliminaries
Reading assignment. Sebesta 11e, Chapter 2: Evolution of the Major Programming Languages
Reading assignment. Scott 4e, Section 2.1: Programming Language Syntax: Specifying Syntax. Reading assignment. Scott 4e, Chapter 4: Semantic Analysis. Reading assignment. Sebesta 11e, Chapter 3: Describing Syntax and Semantics
Reading assignment. Sebesta 11e, Chapter 5: Names, Bindings, and Scopes; Chapter 7: Expressions and Assignments Statements; Chapter 8: Statement-Level Control Structures
Reading assignment. Sebesta 11e, Chapter 6: Data types
Reading assignment. Sebesta 11e, Chapter 9: Subprograms
Reading assignment. Sebesta 11e, Chapter 10: Implementing Subprograms
Reading assignment. Sebesta 11e, Chapter 11: Abstract Data types and Encapsulation Constructs
Reading assignment. Sebesta 11e, Chapter 12: Support for Object-Oriented Programming
Reading assignment.
Sebesta 11e, Chapter 15: Functional Programming Languages
Reading assignment.
Sebesta 11e, Chapter 16: Logic Programming Languages
Scott 2e, Chapter 11: Logic Languages