We develop the same basic understanding and skill in computer programming as CMSC 15100, working more rapidly. We invest the extra time in advanced projects and topics. In particular, we investigate the origins and design principles of the LISP programming language and the Scheme variant, and the organizational principles that make advanced software projects feasible.

You do not need previous programming experience to succeed in CMSC 16100. Instead, you need the ability to pick up new concepts in programming from sketches (not detailed instructions) in the lectures, and work out the details to apply these concepts from the terse descriptions in programming language manuals and from effective experimentation with software. And you must work out application details very quickly. Generally intelligent people vary very widely in the speed with which they can program---by at least a factor of 10, and probably 100. The course does not deliberately emphasizes time pressure, but it is impossible to complete the work satisfactorily unless you work efficiently to identify technical questions and resolve them through discussion and reading the manuals.

The catalog lists placement in MATH 16100 (Honors Calculus) as a prerequisite, and I have not had time to change the listing, but this is not the right prerequisite. Mathematical fluency (which is different from broad mathematical knowledge) correlates fairly well with programming fluency, but there are many strong mathematicians who cannot program effectively at all. You must understand mathematical language very precisely, since the data manipulated by computer programs and the operations performed on those data are defined as mathematical objects. But the content of a calculus course is not especially relevant. CMSC 16100 depends primarily on the mathematical concepts and terms:

• Sets, including the empty set, with the union, intersection, complement, symmetric difference, and power set operations, the equality and subset relations.
• Functions, their domains and ranges, with the application and composition operations.
• Boolean values (true and false as mathematical values), with the and, or, exclusive or, if and not operations.
• Sequences of other values, including the empty sequence (not the same thing as the empty set,) with the first element, tail (result of removing the first element), and concatenation operations, the equality, prefix, suffix, and subsequence relations.
• Numbers, including real, rational, and integer numbers and modular integers, with the usual operations and relations.

Some of these concepts are covered in calculus courses, with a wide variety of careful vs. tangential treatment. A course in set theory, elementary logic, or discrete mathematics is usually a better match. You do not need an advanced background in the theory of these mathematical objects, but you must be able to understand and discuss their basic arithmetical operations with absolute precision, and you must be able to combine them freely. For a quick test---make sure you understand what it means to have a set of sequences of sequences of letters from the English alphabet. Figure out how a dictionary of quotations can be understood as such a set of sequences of sequences. Why not a set of sets of sets, or a sequence of sequences of sequences? Figure out the difference between the empty set, the set containing the empty sequence, and the set containing the sequence containing the empty sequence.

Fluency in writing precise descriptions (not artistic literature) in your native language also correlates fairly well with programming fluency. You must also be free of any computerphobia, and willing to spend a lot of time exploring the behavior of computer programs.

The best test of your readiness to take CMSC 16100 is to try the first three assignments. The first will be trivial, but the second and third will start to have some content. If you find them interesting and feasible, the course is for you. If not, you will still have time to transfer into COMSC 15100.