Course Syllabus

This course cover concepts of programming languages generally and functional languages in particular, including functions, continuations, syntactic sugar, and type systems. These concepts are explained primarily though a sequence of interpreters and type checkers.

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

• employ a recipe for functional programming: data, examples, template (including natural recursions), implementation, and tests
• use and implement lexical scope, closures, records, objects, and classes
  
• encode language constructs using constructs that are more primitive, especially lambda-calculus terms
• represent continuations and state explicitly, instead of relying on host-language implementations
• use and implement different evaluation orders: eager and lazy
• explain type soundness and implement sound type checkers for functional and object-oriented languages that include subtyping and parametric polymorphism
  

Materials for this course:

• Programming Languages: Application and Interpretation, Second Edition, Shriram Krishnamurthi (PDF)
• DrRacket: https://download.racket-lang.org

Preferred Contact Methods

You can also contact the instructor or TAs in the following ways:

• Piazza located in the left Canvas menu.
• Canvas   Inbox located in the left Canvas menu.
• mflatt@cs.utah.edu or TA email address

Office Hours

See the table at the top of the syllabus for office hours.

Asking for Help

When asking a question in a place where it makes sense to show your code (i.e., in a direct message to the instructor or a TA):

• Do include the full source of your program as an attachment.
• Do point the instructor/TA to a particular part of the program (e.g., by line number) where you have a question or where you think there’s a problem.
• Don’t send just a fragment of your code. The instructor/TA probably needs more context. Also, If you don’t understand why a fragment of code has problems, then maybe you’re looking at the wrong fragment.
• Don’t include just a screen shot of the program text. Sometimes, the instructor/TA needs to try running your program to see what happens, and screenshots don’t compile. A screen shot is useful sometimes, but in that case, include both program text and a screen image.
• Don’t copy and paste the text into your mail message, because mail transport mangles text. Provide a program as an attachment.

Your performance in this course will be evaluated by:

• Class participation (5%)
• Homework assignments (50%)
• Two midterm exams (15% each)
• Final exam (15%)

See the “Grading” and “Late Assignments” sections below for details.

Class participation involves in-class exercises. Completing at least 60% of those exercises in class will be rounded up to full credit for class participation.

Homework is graded on the following scale: check+ = 100% for perfect or nearly perfect work, check = 80% for somewhat flawed but acceptable work, check- = 50% for seriously flawed work, 0 = 0% for missing or completely unacceptable work, and check++ = 110% for perfect work plus extra credit (when specifically offered). All homework assignments are weighted equally. Although the handin server runs tests on submission to help you check your understanding, test results are not used for grading; homework grades are determined by an instructor or TA reading your code. After HW 0, full syntactic test coverage is required.

Exams are graded on a scale of 0 to 100 points.

All homework assignments must be submitted via the “Handin” button in DrRacket. Install the uu-cs3520 package and restart DrRacket to get the “Handin” button. See DrRacket and the Handin Button for more information. You can check your handin status and get feedback from the Handin status server.

Late in-class exercises are not accepted. Homework submissions will be accepted up to 48 hours after the deadline. For each student, up to two late homework submissions (each up to 48 hours late) will be accepted without penalty. These “free lates” are meant to cover everyday obstacles to homework submission, such as brief illness, car trouble, and short trips away, and they are applied automatically (so no need to request them). After a student's first two late submissions, a late submission within 24 hours of the deadline will be penalized 25%. A submission more than 24 hours late but less than 48 hours late will be penalized 50%.

Disclaimer

Accommodations will be considered on an individual basis and may require documentation.

Please contact your instructor and/or teaching assistant as soon as possible (preferably shortly before the semester begins) to request accommodations of any kind.

Extreme personal circumstances

Please contact your instructor as soon as possible if an extreme personal circumstance
(hospitalization, death of a close relative, natural disaster, etc.) is interfering with your ability to
complete your work.

Religious Practice

To request an accommodation for religious practices, contact your instructor at the beginning of the semester.

Active Duty Military

If you are student on active duty with the military and experience issues that prevent you from participating in the course because of deployment or service responsibilities, contact your instructor as soon as possible to discuss appropriate accommodations.

Disability Access

All written information in this course can be made available in an alternative format with prior notification to the Center for Disability Services (CDS). CDS will work with you and the instructor to make arrangements for accommodations. Prior notice is appreciated. To read the full accommodations policy for the University of Utah, please see Section Q of the Instruction & Evaluation regulations.

If you will need accommodations in this class, contact:

Center for Disability Services
  801-581-5020
  disability.utah.edu
  162 Union Building
    200 S. Central Campus Dr.
     Salt Lake City, UT 84112

This syllabus is not a contract. It is meant to serve as an outline and guide for your course. Please note that your instructor may modify it to accommodate the needs of your class.

You will be notified of any changes to the Syllabus.