General Class Information Class Handouts Scores Assignments Reference Materials Miscellaneous

CSc 372  Comparative Programming Languages  Spring 2026 Lester I. McCann, Ph.D.

The University of Arizona College of Science Department of Computer Science McCann's Home Page

General Class Information

• Class syllabus (general course information)
• Brightspace (D2L) Site Mainly useful for textbook access.
• Class Q&A Board. We're using Piazza for class discussions this semester.
• Some thoughts about exams:
  • Characteristics of Good Exam Answers (suggestions on how to reply to short-answer exam questions)
  • Suggestions for Studying For and Taking Exams (what to do before and during an exam)
• Program Documentation and Development:
  • Programming Style Requirements (summary)
  • Toward Developing Good Programming Style (many documents here)
• A brief tutorial on using the turnin utility.

Class Handouts       (In case you lost your copy, or missed class)

• Syllabus Summary (2026-01-14)

Current Course Grades      

• Current Scores (updated 2026-01-05 5:10 p.m.)

Assignments

• Homeworks:
  • Homework #1 Due: 2026-02-04

• Programs:
  • Program #1: Ruby Due: 2026-02-18

• Project:
  • Look for it March 30!

Reference Materials       (Pointers to additional information)

• The text for this semester is Programming Languages - Principles and Practice, by Louden and Lambert. (ebook ISBN-13: 9780357703779)
  • This book is available as an ebook via the Pay One Price program, or you can also get it from the publisher as an ebook or in print.
  • Think you found an error in the text? Check the errata list to see if it's already known to the authors.
  
  
• Free, legal, on-line resources for the languages used in this class:
  • Ruby:
    • The Ruby Web Site - - - Downloads, documentation, etc. Specifically:
      • Ruby Documentation
    • The Ruby Style Guide - - - So that your code follows current best practices.
    • The Definitive Ruby Tutorial for Complete Beginners - - - Written for Ruby 2.4.4; very elementary.
    • Tutorial: Core Ruby Programming - - - Uses Ruby 2.
    • Learn Ruby in Y minutes - - - Essentially one big Ruby file with comments and examples.
    • Ruby User's Guide - - - There was a 2.1 version of this, but this 1.6 version is all I could find this semester.

• Sample Programs:
  • Ruby:
    • f2c2k1.rb ---- basic math
    • leapyear1.rb ---- if/else
    • leapyear2.rb ---- case
    • averages.rb ---- file, array, hash
    • formati.rb, formati2.rb ---- top-level methods
    • methodid.rb ---- method metadata
    • fraction.rb ---- class definition
    • account.rb and savings.rb ---- inheritance

• LaTeX resources:
  • I've got a resource page for LaTeX for those of you who would like to use it for formatting your answers to homework assignments.
  • Don't want to install LaTeX on your computer? Try Overleaf, a free (for personal use) online LaTeX editor.
  • Want help formatting equations in LaTeX? You might like this tool: LaTeX equation demo by MyScript
• Curious about what does and does not count as 'academic dishonesty'? My Academic Dishonesty Quiz could be an eye-opener!

Miscellaneous       (A place for stuff that doesn't really fit anywhere else)

• CS2023's CS Curriculum Guidelines has multiple sections of topics that could be covered by a programming languages course. Look for the Foundations of Programming Languages (FPL) section (pages 127-150 of the PDF). That topic collection is spread across several courses in our CS curriculum. This course will focus on the Programming (OO, Functional, and Logic), Type Systems, Syntax Analysis, Language Pragmatics, Formal Semantics, and Design Prinicples subsections.
• The Computer Science Lab Helpdesk has information on the department's computing equipment and services, including a link to change your CS account's password. You'll need to supply your NetID for access.

Completed Slides and Guided Notes

• Completed Lecture Slides: I will be posting my annotated-in-class lecture slides soon after the end of each class.
  
  
  • Click here to access the completed lecture slides.


• Guided Notes: What follows are links to the 'guided notes' (the yet-to-be-annotated slides) for the class ... most of which don't exist at this time. Sorry; they take a long time to create, and other classes have had priority.
  
  
  • Topic 0: Syllabus Overview

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If you have any comments about this page, drop me a note at mccannl@acm.org