CIS24 Programming Languages

Instructor

• Prof. Neng-Fa Zhou, Room 1161 Ingersoll Hall
• Class hours: 6:20-9:00 Thursday (room New Ingersoll 214)
• Office hours: 5:00-6:00 Tuesday and Thursday

Topics

Three major programming paradigms (object-oriented, functional, and logic), formal languages for language specification (regular expressions and context-free grammars), scanning and parsing, language implementation techniques, language evolution, OOP characteristics (abstract data types, inheritance, dynamic binding, and polymorphism), Java, functional programming characteristics (single-assignment variables, recursion, pattern-matching, high-order functions, and lazy evaluation), Scheme, constraint logic programming characteristics (logic variables, rule-based programming, unification, recursion, backtracking, and meta-programming), Prolog and CLP, scripting languages, run-time systems and memory management.

Textbook

• Programming Language Pragmatics, Second Edition , by Michael L. Scott, Morgan Kaufmann, 2006.

Useful resources

• CYGWIN for Windows with g++
• Java online resources: Java Compiler (J2SDK 1.5), Language Specification , API , Tutorial , JavaWorld , Servlet , FAQ
• Logic & Constraint Programming: Logic Programming , Constraint Programming , B-Prolog, SWI-Prolog, The Art of Prolog
• Functional programming: MzScheme, The Scheme Programming Language, Scheme FAQ, SML/NJ , Haskell

Grading

• Homework: 30
• Midterm exam: 30
• Final exam: 40

Syllabus

1. Introduction (Chapter 1)
   • HW1
2. Defining Program Syntax (Section 2.1)
   • HW2
3. OOP (Chapter 9)
   • HW3
4. Functional Programming (Chapter 10)
   • Characteristics of functional languages
   • Scheme
     • Variables, constants, operators, and expressions
     • Defining and using functions
     • Recursions
   • HW4
   • More examples (ML and Haskell)
   • Extra-credit HW: Do questions in HW1 in Scheme. One extra point is given for each correct program.
5. Sample midterm
6. Logic and constraint programming
   • Characteristics and examples of logic languages
   • Prolog
     • Prolog terms
       • family.pl
     • Unification and SLD resolution
     • Recursions
       • HW5
     • Backtracking and search
     • Meta-programming
       • crosspuzzle.pl
   • Constraint logic programming
     • Extra-credit HW: Do questions in HW1 in Prolog. One extra point is given for each correct program.
7. Scanning and Parsing (Section 2.2 and 2.3)
   • From regular expressions to deterministic finite automata (DFA)
   • DFA simulation
   • HW7
   • Parse trees
   • Precedence and associativity
   • Elimination of ambiguity and left-recursion
   • Top-down parsing and bottom-up parsing
   • HW8
8. Run-time Systems and Memory Management (Chapter 8)
   • Parameter passing
   • Activation records
   • Calling and returning sequences
   • Memory management (stack and heap)
   • Garbage collection
9. Scripting Languages (Chapter 13)
10. Final exam May 22 6:20 ( Sample solutions)