Course Syllabus: Lectures
Office Hours
Textbook
Outcomes
Grading Policy
Schedule
Instructor
Dennis Brylow
Email: brylow at cs dot mu dot edu
Office: Cudahy 201C
Lab: Cudahy 310

Meetings
MWF 2:00-2:50pm, LL 176

Office Hours
Mon   12:00pm  -  1:00pm
Mon   9:00pm  -  10:00pm
Wed   12:00pm  -  1:00pm
Fri   9:00am  -  10:00am
Teaching Assistant
Ishrak Zarif
Email: ishrak.zarif at mu dot edu
Office: Cudahy 240 cubicle E

TA Office Hours
Tue   1:00pm  -  3:00pm   CU 240-cubeE
Tue   5:00pm  -  6:00pm   CS Help Desk
MU CS Department Logo

Textbook

BPC Textbook Cover
Programming Languages: Build, Prove, and Compare. Norman Ramsey.
Cambridge University Press.
ISBN: 978-1107180185

Programming Languages: Build, Prove, and Compare is a challenging book. I have chosen it because the interpreter project at the core of this book is first class (no pun intended,) and I know that together we can make our way through it. A graduate-level course would cover the entire text; we will cover chapter 1-3, 6, and 10; we may swing back for chapters 4-5 if time allows. I will assign many of the problems contained in BPC, and others may make excellent exam questions.

For software, I recommend the standard UNIX toolchain, although many POSIX-compliant C compilers will probably do. Later in the term, we will require an ML compiler. The Marquette Systems Lab Linux hosts will be the official platform for submitting work through the turnin system to TA-Bot for evaluation.

Course Outcomes

Upon completing this course, students will be able to:

For those of you curious about the inner workings of college-level curricula, COSC 3410 serves an essential role in supporting Student Outcomes as defined by the ABET accreditation of the Computer Science major at Marquette, including:

It also meets ABET CAC criteria for required concepts of programming languages, and contributes to the breadth requirement for languages and platforms.

This course will correspond to the following components in the Joint ACM / IEEE Computer Society Taskforce report, Computer Science Curricula 2013: Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Computer Science:


Knowledge Unit Core-Tier 1 Hours Core-Tier 2 Hours Includes Electives
PL/Functional Programming 3 4 -
PL/Basic Type Systems 1 4 -
PL/Program Representation 1 -
PL/Language Translation 3 -
PL/Syntax Analysis Y
PL/Compiler Semantic Analysis Y
PL/Type Systems Y
PL/Formal Semantics Y

Course Policies

Grades

Grades will be calculated using the following formula:
Projects 60% Weekly individual or team projects and homework assignments
Reading Quizzes 5% Quizzes on the textbook readings
Midterm Exam 20% Midterm exams (2)
Final Exam 15% Final exam

Grades will be assigned using the standard formula: A: [93, 100]; A-: [90, 93); B+: [86, 90); B: [82, 86); B-: [78, 82); C+: [74, 78); C: [70, 74); C-: [66, 70); D+: [62, 66); D: [58, 62); F: [0, 58)
At the instructor's discretion, grades may be "curved" up; grades will not be curved down.

Grades will be routinely posted in the gradebook on the course D2L site, as they become available.

Attendance

Student attendance will not be explicitly tracked in this course, and will not directly impact student grades. However, students who routinely miss class discussions or lectures should expect to be unprepared to complete the assignments and exams upon which grades so heavily depend. In short, I don't bother with attendance bean-counting because students who cut class usually fail themselves out of the course before I would need to take any action. Make good decisions.

If you know you will be missing class for a legitimate reason, I appreciate a heads-up, but in accordance with Marquette University Attendance Policies, neither require nor accept documented excuses, except in those specific cases detailed in the policy above. Please try to have a peer in the class take notes in your absence, and get any assignments in ahead of the deadline.

The size and structure of this course will not normally allow me to accept late work under any circumstances. There are enough opportunities for points in the course for most students to miss a few without severe consequences for their grades.

Academic Integrity

All students are expected to abide by Marquette University's Policy on Academic Integrity, and we will proceed under the assumption that everyone has committed themselves to the University's Honor Pledge:

I recognize the importance of personal integrity in all aspects of life and work. I commit myself to truthfulness, honor, and responsibility, by which I earn the respect of others. I support the development of good character, and commit myself to uphold the highest standards of academic integrity as an important aspect of personal integrity. My commitment obliges me to conduct myself according to the Marquette University Honor Code.

The Honor Code has particular implications for computer scientists and engineers, as well as computing professors, whose course work is so readily duplicated and shared in our modern digital world.

For my part, I will strive to ensure that your assignments and exams are engaging, challenging, and worth your investment in time and energy. For your part, I expect you will work hard, strive to learn, and present your work with honesty and integrity.

There will be many opportunities for you to collaborate with your peers in this course, and I strongly encourage you both to seek help when you are stuck, and to share your knowledge with your peers when you have achieved understanding. Problems will only occur if you falsely claim work as your own when it is not, or collaborate when an exam or assignment has been specified to be individual work.

In the unlikely event of an academic integrity violation in this course, Marquette University's Procedures For Incidents of Academic Dishonesty will be closely followed.

Schedule

Week Topics Readings Assignments
01 Impcore, ASTs, Environments Ch 1.1-1.4 Project #1 - Impcore
02 Operational Semantics, Interpreters Ch 1.5-1.6 Project #2 - Impcore Interpreter
03 Proofs and Metatheory; μScheme Ch 1.7-1.9, 2.1 Project #3 - Impcore Theory
04 S-Expressions, Let*, Functions Ch 2.2-2.7 Project #4 - μScheme
05 Higher-order Functions Ch 2.8-2.15
06 μScheme Interpreter in ML Ch 5 Project #5 - μScheme Interpreter
07 Types Ch 6.1-6.2 Project #6 - μScheme in ML
08 Type Soundness and Extensions Ch 6.3-6.5 October Break
09 Polymorphic Types Ch 6.6-6.8 Project #7 - Typechecking
10 Objects, Smalltalk Ch 10.1-10.3
11 μSmalltalk Ch 10.4-10.9 Project #8 - μSmalltalk
12 Operational Semantics and Interpreter Ch 10.10-10.14 Project #9 - μSmalltalk Interpreter
13 μScheme+ Ch 3.1-3.5 Thanksgiving Break
14 Automatic Memory Management Ch 3.6-3.8, 4.1-4.3 Project #10 - History of CS
15 Garbage Collection Techniques Ch 4.4-4.10  
16 Final Exams  
The instructor reserves the right to adjust this schedule as necessary.

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[Revised 2023 Aug 28 13:15 DWB]