Chris Pollett>Old Classes>CS170, Fall 1998
Last modified 08/31/98
TR 2:20-3:50pm
Classes meet TR 9:00am - 10:15pm in JC105.
To enroll in this course, you must have taken Math 114 and CSCI 102.
This class will cover various topics in the design and implementation of programming languages. In particular, we will discuss what is involved in specifying the syntax and semantics of programming languages, look at how languages are compiled or are interpreted, and discuss some paradigms on which languages can be based. The goal will be to help students become more efficient and effective programmers by building an understanding of how programs become code, by broadening the students' base of programming constructs, and by developing skills to rapidly learn or design new languages that might be suitable for particular tasks.
Homeworks 40% Midterm Paper 10% Midterm 20% Final Project 10% Final 20%
The midterm project is due Oct. 15. The midterm will be Oct. 29.
Homework will generally be given every week or two and will be a mixture of written assignments and programming assignments.
The midterm project will involve writing a 5 page report on a programming language (I will give out a list of suggested languages such as Haskell, Postscript, Snobol, etc.) and also submitting an original short program in this language. The paper's focus should be on how the language in question treats the various design issues discussed in this class.
In general, you will have at least one week to work on a homework assignment and two opportunities to attend my office hours before a given assignment is due.
Late homeworks will not be accepted; however, your low homework score will be dropped.
As shown above in the grade breakdown there will be both a midterm and final in this course. The final will cover only material from the second half or the semester. These exams will test whether or not the student has mastered the material both presented in class or assigned as homework during the semester. I will try to avoid both tricky and ambiguous questions. The week before each exam I will try to give out a list of problems representative of the level of difficulty of problems the student will be expected to answer on the exam.