CS245: Principles of Programming Languages, Bryn Mawr College

Douglas Blank
Fall 2008

Overview

An introduction to a wide range of topics relating to programming languages with an emphasis on abstraction and design. Design issues relevant to the implementation of programming languages are discussed, including a review and in-depth treatment of mechanisms for sequence control, the run-time structure of programming languages and programming in the large. The course has a strong lab component where students get to construct large programs in at least three different imperative programming languages.

General Information

Instructor: Douglas Blank, 248 Park Science Building, 526-6501
Email: dblank (at) cs (dot) brynmawr (dot) edu
Web: cs.brynmawr.edu/~dblank
Office hours: TBA
Lectures: Tues and Thursdays
Lab: Park Science Building, room 231
Lab Assistants: TBA

Texts

	The Scheme Programming Language, R. Kent Dybvig. Third Edition, 2003. MIT Press.
	Essentials of Programming Languages, Daniel P. Friedman and Mitch Wand. Third Edition, 2008. MIT Press.

Software

We will use the program Petite Scheme, a freely available version of Chez Scheme. We will also use a new version of Scheme, called Pyjama Scheme, and C#. These are all available on the Computer Science Linux machines. You will get an account if you don't have one already.

Schedule

Week	Dates	Topic	Assignment
1	09/02/2008, 09/04/2008	Why Programming Languages?	Scheme Syntax
2	09/09/2008, 09/11/2008	Introduction to Scheme	TSPL Chapters 1, 2
3	09/16/2008, 09/18/2008	More Scheme: Recursion, Continuations, and Procedures	TSPL Chapters 3, 4
4	09/23/2008, 09/25/2008	Inductive Sets of Data	EOPL Chapter 1
5	09/30/2008, 10/02/2008	Data Abstraction	EOPL Chapter 2
6	10/07/2008, 10/09/2008	Expressions; our first language, LET	EOPL Chapter 3
Friday, September 19 Final day to drop HC or BMC class without penalty.
7	10/14/2008, 10/16/2008	Fall Break	No classes
8	10/21/2008, 10/23/2008	EXPLICIT-REFS; a second language	EOPL Chapter 4
9	10/28/2008, 10/30/2008	Continuation-Passing Interpreters	EOPL Chapter 5
10	11/04/2008, 11/06/2008
11	11/11/2008, 11/13/2008
12	11/18/2008, 11/20/2008
13	11/25/2008, 11/27/2008		No class on Thursday
14	12/02/2008, 12/04/2008
15	12/09/2008, 12/11/2008		Thursday: last day of classes--All written work due 5:00 pm (including papers and lab notes).

Other dates of interest:

Friday, October 10, Last day to declare Credit/No Credit Option--closes at 5:00 pm.
Friday, October 10, Fall Break begins after last class
Monday, October 20, Fall Break ends--classes resume at 8:00 am
Friday, October 24, First half semester classes end
Monday, October 27, Second half semester classes begin
Friday, November 7- Sunday, November 9, Parents Weekend
Monday, November 10, Semester II registration begins
Friday, November 14, Semester II registration closes
Wednesday, Novermber 26, Thanksgiving Vacation begins after last class
Monday, December 1, Thanksgiving Vacation ends--Classes resume at 8:00 am
Friday, December 12, Review Period begins
Saturday, December 13, Review Period ends
Sunday, December 14, Examination Period begins
Friday, December 19, Examination Period ends-- All work due by 12:30 pm
Friday, December 19, Winter Break begins--Dorms close at 5:00 pm
Monday, January 5, Grades due--12 noon

Grading

Final grades will be calculated as a weighted average of all grades according to the following weights:

Midterm Exam: 25%
Final Exam: 25%
Labs: 25%
Project: 25%

dblank (at) cs (dot) brynmawr (dot) edu