Principles of Programming Languages

CSE 307 - Fall 2009

Announcements

November 21, 2009: Bonus Assignment is now available and gradeable, if you dare attempt it.
November 17, 2009: Assignment 4 is now gradeable.
November 10, 2009: Assignment 4 is now available.

Description

This course introduces programming language design and implementation. We will discuss the major programming paradigms and the language features that comprise these paradigms. We will discuss how language features are mapped onto computer hardware. Rather than focus on any particular language, we will give students a broad foundation, to help prepare them to deal with the many programming languages they may encounter over the course of their career.

Students will given programming assignments that require them to implement and use the language features discussed in the class.

Prerequisites: CSE 219 or CSE 260; CSE220. | Credits: 3. | Official description.

Instructor: Tom Rothamel, rothamel@cs.sunysb.edu, +1 631 627 1211 | Office hours: Computer Science 1434, Tuesday and Thursday, 2:30 - 4:00 PM

TA: Spyros Hadjichristodoulou, shadjichrist@cs.sunysb.edu, +1 631 988 2671 | Office hours: Computer Science 2110, Monday and Friday, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Lectures: Tuesday and Thursday, 12:50 - 2:10 PM, Earth & Space 131

Textbook: Programming Language Pragmatics by Michael Scott. Third Edition, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2009.

Grading: There will be two exams, a midterm worth 20% and a final worth 30%. Programming assignments will comprise the other 50% of the grade. Quizzes, if given, will be used to help interpret numeric grades.

Late work: Late assignments will be penalized at a rate of 25% per day.

Web presence: The course homepage (http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~rothamel/cse307/) will be used for announcements. Our blackboard forum can be used discussion and asking questions.

Topics

This course will cover the following topics, in the order given. With the exception of the first, these correspond to chapters in Programming Language Pragmatics.

Introduction to Python Programming
Syntax, Lexical Analysis, and Parsing
Abstract Syntax, Semantics, and Interpretation
Names, Scopes, and Bindings
Control Flow
Data Types
Subroutines and Control Abstraction
Functional Languages
Logic Languages
Concurrency
Scripting Languages

Schedule

Tuesday, September 01, 2009:: Lecture 1: Introduction. Why so many PLs? Families of languages. Compilation and Interpretation. Programming environment. Overview of compliation. (Chapter 1)
Thursday, September 03, 2009:: Lecture 2: Introduction to Python I. Getting and Running Python. Simple Expressions. Control Flow. Data Structures. (Reading: Python 2.6 Tutorial)
Tuesday, September 08, 2009:: Lecture 3: Introduction to Python II. More Data Structures. List comprehensions. Functions. Modules. Input/Output.
Thursday, September 10, 2009:: Lecture 4: Introduction to Python III. Classes. Exception Handling. Generators
Tuesday, September 15, 2009:: Lecture 5: Parts of a Compiler/Interpreter (Chapter 1.6). Specifying Syntax (2.1). Scanning (2.2). Perl-Style Regular Expressions.
Thursday, September 17, 2009:: Lecture 6: Parsing (Chapter 2.3, skip 2.3.2 and 2.3.2). Top-down parsing. Recursive descent parsers. TPG.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009:: Lecture 7: Review of Project 1, Names, Scopes and Bindings. Binding Time (Chapter 3.1). Object Lifetime and Storage Management (3.2).
Thursday, September 24, 2009:: Lecture 8: Project 2 Announced. Object lifetime cont. Scope rules (Chapter 3.3). Names within Scope (3.5). Binding Reference Environments (3.6).
Tuesday, September 29, 2009:: No Class - Classes follow Monday Schedule
Thursday, October 01, 2009:: Lecture 9: Macro Expansion (Chapter 3.7). Semantic analysis and Attribute Grammars (4).
Tuesday, October 06, 2009:: Lecture 10: Assignment 2 hints. Attribute Grammars. Semantics. (Chapter 4). Control flow introduction. (6)
Thursday, October 08, 2009:: Lecture 11: Expressions (Chapter 6.1). Structured and Unstructured Flow (6.2). Sequencing (6.3). Selection (6.4).
Tuesday, October 13, 2009:: Lecture 12: Iteration (Chapter 6.5). Recursion (6.6). Type systems (7.1)
Thursday, October 15, 2009:: Lecture 13: Type checking (Chapter 7.2). Type judgements. Records and Variants (7.3). Arrays (7.4). Strings (7.5). Maps and Sets (7.6).
Tuesday, October 20, 2009:: Lecture 14: Stack layout (Chapter 8.1). Parameter Passing (8.2).
Thursday, October 22, 2009:: Midterm Review
Tuesday, October 27, 2009:: Midterm
Thursday, October 29, 2009:: Lecture 15: Generic subroutines (Chapter 8.4). Object Oriented Programming (9.1).
Tuesday, November 03, 2009:: Lecture 16: Encapsulation and Inheritance (Chapter 9.2). Initialization and Finalization (9.3). Multiple Inheritance (9.5).
Thursday, November 05, 2009:: Lecture 17: Implementing Objects. Dynamic Method Binding (Chapter 9.5). Garbage Collection (7.7.3, 9.3.4).
Tuesday, November 10, 2009:: Lecture 18: More on Garbage Collection. History of Functional Programming (Chapter 10.1). FP Concepts (10.2). Lambda Calculus (10.6.1). Scheme (10.3).
Thursday, November 12, 2009:: Lecture 19: Scheme (Chapter 10.3). Evaluation Order (10.4). Pure functions.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009:: Lecture 20: Evaluation order continued (Chapter 10.4). Monads (10.4). Currying (10.5). Higher-Order Functions (10.5).
Thursday, November 19, 2009:: Lecture 21
Tuesday, November 24, 2009:: Lecture 22
Thursday, November 26, 2009:: No Classes - Thanksgiving
Tuesday, December 01, 2009:: Lecture 23
Thursday, December 03, 2009:: Lecture 24
Tuesday, December 08, 2009:: Lecture 25
Thursday, December 10, 2009:: Final Exam Review
Thursday, December 17, 2009:: Final Exam (5:15-7:45 PM)

Assignments

Assignments are due at 10 PM, Eastern Time, on the date given.

Assignment 1, due September 20, 2009.
Assignment 2, due October 8, 2009.
Assignment 3, due November 1, 2009.
Assignment 4, due November 24, 2009.

The following resources might be useful for your projects:

TPG - Toy Parser Generator. Download tpg.py <tpg.py> locally.

Policy

Academic integrity: All assignments, quizzes, and exams must be done individually, unless specified otherwise; you may discuss ideas with others and look up references, but you must write up your solutions independently and credit all sources that you used. It is your responsibility to ensure that your work remains secure. Any plagiarism or other forms of cheating discovered will have a permanent consequence in your university record.

Each student must pursue his or her academic goals honestly and be personally accountable for all submitted work. Representing another person's work as your own is always wrong. Any suspected instance of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Academic Judiciary. For more comprehensive information on academic integrity, including categories of academic dishonesty, please refer to the academic judiciary website.

Disability: If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact your course work, please contact Disability Support Services, ECC (Educational Communications Center) Building, room 128, (631) 632-6748. They will determine with you what accommodations, if any, are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation is confidential.

Students who require assistance during emergency evacuation are encouraged to discuss their needs with their professors and Disability Support Services. For procedures and information go to http://www.ehs.sunysb.edu and search Fire Safety and Evacuation and Disabilities.

Critical Incident Management: Stony Brook University expects students to respect the rights, privileges, and property of other people. Faculty are required to report to the Office of Judicial Affairs any disruptive behavior that interrupts their ability to teach, compromises the safety of the learning environment, or inhibits students' ability to learn.