CSc 520

Principles of Programming Languages
Spring 2006

• Michael L. Scott, Programming Language Pragmatics, 2nd Edition, Morgan-Kaufmann, 2006.
• Excerpts from David A. Watt, Programming Language Syntax and Semantics, Prentice-Hall, 1997. I will announce when this packet is available from Student Union FAST COPY (621-5306), probably in late January.

weight	item
40%	Homework (4-5 problem sets)
30%	Midterm Exam
30%	Final Comprehensive Exam

Spring 2006 Academic Calendar

All students need to run the apply program each semester. This is the case whether or not you have a pre-existing account.

For Everybody: All students are required to fill out the web page entitled Computer Account Application Request Form at URL www.cs.arizona.edu/~apply. Do so whether or not you already have an account, and whether you are a Computer Science major or not. (This updates a Department database with your course selections, and you can be assigned a correct Computer Science ID (CSID) number). NOTE: If you have not done this update by Census Day (Tue 7 Feb), your account will be closed.

For a student with a currently active account in C SC: At the web page, under TYPE of APPLICATION, select UPDATE an OPEN account for new classes. Read the Appropriate Use Guidelines before pushing ACCEPT.

For a student without a currently active account in C SC: To obtain a new account on the Department's instructional processor lectura, or to re-activate an existing account, use any machine to go to URL www.cs.arizona.edu/~apply. (During the first week of classes, the Department provides machines for this purpose in Room 919 Gould-Simpson Bldg.) At the web page, under TYPE of APPLICATION, select either NEW account on CS systems, or RE-activate an EXISTING closed CS account. Read the Appropriate Use Guidelines before pushing ACCEPT.

Your registration information will be verified within a few minutes, and an account will be created for you, along with a keycard allowing round-the-clock lab access. The keycard will be available in Room 919 while the account registration machines are set up there, and at the Reception Desk in Room 917 thereafter.

For Everybody: You will need to know your CSID, since grades will be posted using this identifier. To find your CSID at any time, go to http://www.cs.arizona.edu/~apply/CSID.html At the prompt, enter your University of Arizona Student ID (SID). (Hyphens are optional). Record your CSID for future reference.

Each graded item, such as a homework or examination, is first awarded a raw score; raw scores vary with the number of questions, their difficulty, and their length. For each graded item, the raw scores is normalized to a ``traditional'' scale in which 90 - 100 is an A, 80 - 89 is a B and 70 - 79 is a C. For each graded item, only the normalized score is recorded. The final cumulative course grade is computed as a weighted average of these normalized scores, using the weights described under Course Format above. The resulting weighted average is then converted to a letter grade using the ``traditional'' scale. Decisions on whether borderline scores (such as 89) will be recorded as the next highest letter grade will be made using (a) performance on the final examination and (b) evidence of accomplishment in the subject that is cumulative over the term.

Attendance is not enforced, but you are responsible for all material covered in lecture or assigned as reading.

Without prior arrangements, missed exams result in a grade of zero. Homework is due at the start of class on the due date; late homework is not accepted.

Assignments in this course require individual attention and effort to be of any benefit. All work is expected to be that of each student alone, without consultation with others, without reference to borrowed solutions, and not the product of team efforts or collaboration with other authors. Plagiarism or the incorporation of another author's words or ideas constitutes theft of intellectual property; it will result in a grade of zero. Copying work from another student, whether currently or formerly enrolled in this course, copying from a book or paper, or copying text from a web page all constitute plagiarism. These and other provisions are governed by the Code of Academic Integrity (Revised August 2005) which applies to all those in this course. It is a violation of the Code to use another person's solutions as your own, whether those solutions are taken from a student in this course, or taken from solutions obtained from an earlier offering of this course, or from a student who took this course earlier.

It is assumed that: you have the prerequisites for this course, and their prerequisites, etc., recursively; that you are literate in a few modern computer languages; that you are both literate and a competent programmer in C; and that you are skilled in the use of the programming environment and Unix tools available in the Department's Graduate Instructional Laboratory.

The instructor reserves the right to fail for the course any student failing the final comprehensive examination.

• C SC 520 Course Reserve.
• University of Arizona Library - Sabio Information Gateway

• List of texts

• A Literate, Executable, Denotational Semantics of Simple C++ Declarations
• Ziring's Dictionary of Programming Languages.
• Lambda Calculus by Lloyd Allison
• Introduction to Standard ML by Robert Harper
• Programming in Standard ML by Robert Harper
• ML modules are discussed in the tutorial by Claudio Russo found here.
• Other Language References

• cs.course520 is the CSc 520 newsgroup. Regularly check this newsgroup either through the above link or via some other news reader (pine, trn, etc.). The newsgroup is the place for homework updates, text errata, changes of due date, and advice from the instructor. Answers to student questions of public interest will be posted here.
  
  
• http://www.cs.arizona.edu/classes/cs520/spring06/ is the URL for this document, which is the official course syllabus. It will be kept it up-to-date with information on assignments and exams. Reload it regularly to see any changes.

• Lecture01: Introduction (pdf) (ppt)
• Lecture02: Criteria for Language Design (pdf)
• Lecture03: Theoretical Foundations (pdf) (ppt)
• Lecture04: Types and Polymorphism (pdf) (ppt)
• Lecture05: Denotational Semantics (pdf) (ppt)
  • Abstract Syntax 0(pdf)
  • The Store 1(pdf)
  • The Environment 2(pdf)
  • An Imperative Language: IMP 3(pdf)
  • Function Abstractions 4(pdf)
  • Recursion 5(pdf)
  • Procedure Abstractions 6(pdf)
  • Parameter Denotations 7(pdf)
  • Copy Parameters 8(pdf)
  • Expression Side-Effects 9(pdf)
  • Static Semantics 10(pdf)
• Lecture06: Parameters (pdf) (ppt)
• Lecture07: Implementation of Block Structured Languaes (pdf) (ppt)
• Lecture08: Control Semantics and Continuations(pdf) (ppt)
• Lecture09: Coroutines (pdf) (ppt)
• Lecture10: Variables and Assignment (pdf) (ppt)

• Reading Assignments:
  • Due Wed 1 Feb:
    • Watt, Chapter 1: Introduction -- all, and
      Chapter 2: Syntax -- all (Watt notes at Student Union Bookstore)
    • Scott, Chapter 1: Introduction -- all, and
      Chapter 2: Syntax -- all. This material is review of subjects covered in the prerequisite for this course and should be familiar.
  • Due Mon 6 Feb:
    • Watt, Chapter 3 (Semantics), Sections 3.1-3.2
      Chapter 5 (Theory), Section 5.1
    • Scott, Chapter 3 (Names, Scopes and Bindings)
  • Due Mon 13 Feb:
    • Watt: Section 3.3; Section 5.2
      
    • Scott, 1st Ed: Chapter 11, Sections 11.1-11.2
      Scott, 2nd Ed: Chapter 10, Sections 10.1-10.8
      
    • Read Lambda Calculus by Lloyd Allison; there is a link in the ``Reference Links'' section above.
    • Read Robert Harper, Introduction to Standard ML; there is a pdf version in the ``Reference Links'' section above. Another good but optional reference is Programming in Standard ML; see the reference links above.
  • Due Wed 22 Feb:
    • Watt, Chapter 5 (Theory), Section 5.3
      
    • Scott (1st and 2nd eds.), Chapter 7 (Types), all
  • Due Wed 1 Mar:
    • Watt, Chapter 3, Sections 3.4 - 3.7
      
    • Scott (1st and 2nd eds.), Chapter 6 (Control Flow), all
  • Due Mon 10 Apr:
    • W. A. Wulf, D. B. Russel, and A. N. Habermann, BLISS: a language for systems programming, Communications of the ACM, vol. 14, no. 12, pp. 780--790 (December 1971). (pdf)
  • Due Mon 1 May:
    • D. R. Hanson and R. E. Griswold, The SL5 Procedure Mechanism, Communications of the ACM, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 392--400 (May 1978). (pdf)
• Homework and Exams:
  • Homework 1 (due 6 Feb) (pdf)
  • Homework 2 (due 20 Feb) (pdf)
  • Homework 3 (due 1 Mar) (pdf) (due date postponed to Mon 6 Mar)
  • Homework 4 (due 27 Mar) (pdf)
  • Homework 5 (due 17 Apr) (pdf)
  • OPTIONAL Homework 6 (due 1 May) (pdf)
  • Midterm Exam (pdf)
  
  
  
• Final Examination: Friday May 5, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm, Gould-Simpson 701.
  • Open book
  • Open notes
  • examination topics(pdf)
  • example final examination (pdf)
  • Final Exam (pdf)

Grades are posted here and outside Room 739 Gould-Simpson. Grades are posted by your "Computer Science ID" (CSID), which can be discovered by logging in as "csid", password "CSID" and responding to prompts.

Exam and homework envelopes may be picked up in Room 901 Gould-Simpson.

• Grades