Principles of Programming Languages

Objectives

Professor

Textbook

Attendance

Grades

Exams

Written Assignments

Rules on Giving/Getting Help


Homework Assignments


Objectives

  • To gain some sense of the history of programming languages and to study the reasons for their variety
  • To consider important principles related to language design
  • To review methods of specifying language syntax
  • To study the issues of naming, binding, scope, and type as applied to data objects
  • To investigate the variety of control structures that are available in different languages
  • To study issues related to procedure and function blocks
  • To become familiar with a variety of languages and paradigms
    • Imperative Programming
    • Object Oriented Programming
    • Functional Programming
    • Logic Programming

Professor

Dr. Christine Shannon 
Olin 115 
Phone: 5406 (Office) 238-7422 (Home) 
e-mail: shannon@centre.edu 
You might also be interested in visiting my home page at http://web.centre.edu/shannon/.

Office hours: I am generally on campus every day between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. and often later than that.. If I am not in class, I am usually in my office or one of the computer labs. I will try to observe the following office hours and will notify you if I won't be available. 

M-W-F: 9:10 - 10:10 a.m. 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Th: 9:00 - 11:00 a.m. 

Please feel free to come by at other times and you are always welcome to make an appointment. 

Textbook

Tucker, Allen B. and Robert E. Noonan, Programming Languages, Principles and Paradigms. 2nd Edition, New York: McGraww Hill, 2007.

Attendance 

I expect students to be present for all classes. Please let me know in advance if you must be absent for a scheduled college activity. Illness might prevent you from being present for a couple of classes during the term but anything beyond that will probably have a detrimental effect on your grade. Those of you who must be absent for college sponsored activities should be particularly careful not to miss any other classes. It is very important that you be present for all examinations. Documentation will be required before you are allowed to make up a test and in general the make up will be the appropriate part of the final exam. Only the Associate Dean can make exceptions to the final exam schedule. If you have a good reason to be absent from class, you are still responsible for the homework assignments. Except in the case of serious illness, all assignments are to be turned in on time. 

 

Grades

Your grade for the course will be determined by the following: 
Tests (3) 100 points each
Homework  100 points 
Final Exam 150 points

Your final grade will be determined by the total number of points you accumulate out of the 550 possible points. The 100 point homework grade will be composed of the points you gain on programming projects and any other written assignments. Borderline cases will be determined by improvement on the final and participation in class. Students who are ill-prepared, miss class, or otherwise fail to live as responsible citizens will not get the benefit of any doubt. I will use a 15 point grading scale so that you are guaranteed an A or A- if you score 85 or above, a B-, B or B+ for 70-84, C-,C or C+ for 55-69 a D for 45-54 and anything lower is failing.

Exams

There will be three exams on Friday, February 27.and Friday, April 3, and Monday, May 4.. There will also be a cumulative final during the final exam period on Saturday, May 16.

 

Written Assignments 

There will be reading assignments and exercises assigned each day. These will be discussed at the next class meeting. There will also be some exercises and programming assignments which I will collect and grade. Programming assignments in this course will generally be short and will usually be due in just a few days. All work must be submitted on time. Late projects will be penalized 10% per day. I do not accept other assignments past the deadline but there will be some "grace" at the end of the semester.  Unless the project is specifically designated as a team project you are to work independently. You are responsible for safeguarding the security of your accounts. You should NEVER give your password to another person or permit someone to read your code (unless another member of YOUR team is checking your work.) You must give credit BY NAME to any person who assists you in completing an assignment. Failure to acknowledge such help is PLAGIARISM and will be dealt with accordingly. 

All students will conclude their project with the statement: 

This is my own work except for the help from the persons whom I have noted above. I gave help to the following students: (list names). Follow with your signature. 
.

General Rules for Giving/Getting Help

If you are seeking help: Another person may read your code if you are trying to find a bug. You must acknowledge their help and indicate that they read your code as part of the documentation. You may not read another person's code but it is permissible to talk about the solution of the problem (not the actual code). Anyone with whom you discuss the problem, must be listed in your documentation. 

If you are giving help: you may read another person's code if you are looking for an error. It is their responsibility to list you as a resource. You may not allow another student to read your code "to get the idea". It is permissible to talk about your solution but be judicious about the hints you give. Again, the other student is responsible for listing your help in the