IndexAnnouncements
Instructor Contact Info
Course Description
Course Textbooks
Programming Exercises
Course Policies
Course Mailing List
Course Schedule
Homework Assignments
Homework Solutions
Handouts
Sample Code
Additional Useful Links
Programming in SML
SML/NJ FAQ
Announcements/Updates
The first class will be on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2007 at 3:00pm in Ry 276. The course has moved to classroom Ry251 as of Oct. 16.The Midterm Exam will take place in class on Tuesday, October 30.
The Final Exam will take place from 1:30pm to 3:30pm on Thursday, December 6, in Ryerson 251.
Instructor Contact Info
Name Role Office Office hours Phone David MacQueen Professor Ryerson 256 By appointment 2-4980 dbm@cs.uchicago.edu Chunyan Song TA Hinds B-016 2-3pm Thu, 3-4pm Fri 5-0160 cysong [at] cs [dot] uchicago [dot] edu Course Description
Programming languages are the most fundamental tools involved in the creation of software, and thus play a key role in computing. This is a foundational course exploring the principles and concepts underlying the design of programming languages. We use a formal approach based on operational semantics to give clear and precise descriptions of language concepts, such as flow of control, data structures and types, modularity and abstraction, and concurrency. The major paradigms of imperative, functional, and object-oriented paradigms will be covered, though the functional paradigm will be the main focus because of its simplicity.Students should have experience programming in one or more programming languages, and familiarity with basic concepts of naive set theory and logic would be helpful. Inductive definitions and inductive proofs will play a central role.
The course is being taught as a combinded graduate/undergraduate course this year. There will be additional reading and assignments for the graduate students.
Course Textbook
The main textbook for the course is Programming Languages: Theory and Practice by Robert Harper. This is available in two versions as pdf files: online.pdf suitable for online viewing, or offline.pdf suitable for printing. Note that this is a different (and older) version of the book from what was originally posted on this page.A supplementary text for the graduate students taking CMSC 32100 is Programming Languages and Lambda Calculi by Matthias Felleisen and Matthew Flatt.
Other references that are useful for background material or further study are:
- Types and Programming Languages, by Benjamin Pierce, MIT Press, 2002, ISBN 0-262-16209-1. A thorough and readable reference on type systems.
- Discrete Structures, Logic, and Computability by James Hein. Covers relevant topics in set theory, logic, and discrete math. Used as a textbook in CMSC 15300, Foundations of Software.
- Naive Set Theory by Paul Halmos, Springer, 2001, ISBN 3540900926. A republished edition of a classic introductory text on the basics of set theory.
Programming Exercises
This is not a course centered on programming projects, but programming examples and exercises that show how to implement the ideas expressed in operational semantics will be given using the language Standard ML. There are several good sources of documentation and tutorials for SML/NJ available online, and some of these are given in the course SML/NJ page.
Course Policies
- Grading will be based on the following:
- Homework exercises: 40%
- Midterm exam: 25%
- Final exam: 35%
- Assigments: Homework assignments will normally be given on Tuesdays and will be due at the beginning of class the following Tuesday. Late homework can be handed in the class following the due date with a 30% penalty.
- Collaboration: As in most courses, we encourage students to discuss course material among themselves. Discussions of assignment problems is also permitted to an extent, but submitted assignments should be your own work, and collaborative discussions should be acknowledged.
- Final Examination: The final examination will be a two hour in-class exam given at 1:30pm on Dec 6 (time/date to be confirmed).
Course Mailing List
A mailing list has been created for the course. The address is cmsc22100@mailman.cs.uchicago.edu. The web page for the mailing list is at a https://mailman.cs.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/cmsc22100.Homework Assignments
Here are links to PDF files of the homework assignments.
Homework 1 (due Tuesday, Oct 2);
Solution 1.
Homework 2 (due Tuesday, Oct 9);
Solution 2.
Homework 3 (due Oct 16);
Solution 3.
Homework 4 (due Thursday, Oct 25); Solution 4.
Homework 5 (due Nov 8)
Homework 6 (due Nov 15); Solution 6 (partial)
Homework 7 (due Nov 22)
Solution 7
Homework 8 (due Friday, Nov Solution 8
30)
Handouts
Here are links to PDF files of the handouts.
Rule Induction for Arith+Let
(cs221-style.tex)
Alternate E-machine description.
Description of Landin's SECD machine.
Sample Code
Here are links to sample code.
arith.sml: arithmetic with let, calculating free variables
arith-interp.sml: simple interpreter for arithmetic with let (single variable substitutions)
arith-SOS.sml: SOS-style evaluator for arithmetic using substitutions
arith-ENV.sml: environment-based evaluator for arithmetic
arith-EV.sml: EV-style evaluator for arithmetic using substitutions
arith.scm: environment-based evaluator for arithmetic (scheme version)
Type checker and evaluator for MiniML
Big-step evaluator for pure lambda calculus
Evaluator for lambda calculus using environments
Tarball of code for Reynolds "Definitional Interpreters" paper
C-machine evaluator for MinML
E-machine evaluator for MinML
SECD machine evaluator for MinML
SECD compiler for MinML
E-machine evaluator for MinML with products
Type checker and evaluator for MinML with recursive types
Interactive interpreter for extended MinML (tarball)Papers and Presentations
The Mechanical Evaluation of Expressions by Peter Landin (Computer Journal, 1964)
The Next 700 Programming Languages by Peter Landin (CACM, 1966)
Definitional Interpreters for Higher-Order Progamming Languages by John Reynolds (1972)
A Structural Approach to Operational Semantics by Gordon Plotkin.
The Discoveries of Continuations by John Reynolds.
Structure and Abstraction in HOT Languages (Marktoberdorf Summer School Notes, 2000).
Additional Useful Links
Frank Pfenning at CMU has a web site for his version of a course 15-312 Foundations of Programming Languages based on Harpers draft book. This web site has some very useful supplementary lecture notes, as well as assignments, software, and other resources. You may find it useful to browse through this site and download some of the material.