Lecturer Candidate

Speaker:		Suzanne Westbrook Northern Arizona University
Topic:		Topic: Using a Multiparadigm Language to Illustrate Programming Paradigms
Date:		Thursday, April 29, 1999
Time:		9:30 AM
Place:		Gould-Simpson, Room 701

ABSTRACT

Most undergraduate Principles of Programming Languages courses have students use several distinct languages to gain experience with different programming paradigms. Although this approach gives students exposure to multiple "real" languages (looks good on the resume!), the exposure is often shallow due to the time involved in learning new environments. By using one multiparadigm language (a language that provides linguistic support for more than one paradigm), instead of several single-paradigm languages, students can concentrate specifically on the aspects of a particular paradigm rather than having to learn a new environment and syntax for each language in addition to a paradigm.

For the last five years we have used the multiparadigm language GED to illustrate programming paradigms in our Principles of Programming Languages course. GED supports the procedural, functional, logic, and object-oriented paradigms and allows programs to be written using either single paradigms or combinations of paradigms. In this talk, I will introduce some of the features of GED and discuss to what degree it supports the various paradigms. Then we can see how GED can be used to write programs in single-paradigm styles and, also, how the paradigms can be combined to produce a multiparadigm program. I will conclude by discussing my interests in how various paradigm combinations affect the overall paradigm of a multiparadigm program.