CS 341 - Principles of Programming Languages Course Information

Course Overview

Learning Objectives

• Design, code, test, and debug programs in a few representative language of different programming paradigms.
• Learn how to design a programming language by creating a functional language interpreter and an interpreter for a student-designed language.
• Formalize the notion of typing, differentiating between static and dynamic typing, and evaluating languages with regard to typing.
• Design, code, test, and debug programming languages with various manual and automatic dynamic memory management systems.

This course fulfills the Gettysburg College Qualitative, Inductive, and Deductive Reasoning (QIDR) curricular requirement.

Text

There is no course text.  Necessary materials will be supplied or found online.

Instructor

Grading

You are responsible to know the material from each lecture and reading assignment before the start of the next class.  Homework is due at the beginning of lecture on the due date.  Late homework will not necessarily be accepted.  Code must be a legal program in the relevant language in order to be graded.  (It need not be free from logic errors.)  For compiled languages, this means that the program must compile without error.  For interpreted languages, this means it must be interpretable without error.   Source code with compilation/syntax errors may not receive partial credit.  You are required to attend 2 colloquia or approved departmental events over the course of the semester. 

Attendance

Class attendance and participation is required.  If you attend all classes and are willing to participate, you'll get 100% for this part of your grade.  Even if you know enough to give a particular lecture, please consider the value of helping your peers during in-class exercises.

Woody Allen is quoted as saying "80% of success is just showing up."   While our class attendance/participation grade is not 80% of the final grade, it is critical that late arrivals and unexcused absences are not excessive.  Missing more than half of class unexcused is considered being absent.  An unexcused late arrival is counted as a half absence.  If the total number of absences counted this way exceeds 20% of class meetings, i.e. 6 absences or more, the student will have failed the course.

Honor Code

What is permitted:

• AI-generated code where (1) you include your prompts in comments, and (2) you have thoroughly understood, can explain, and have tested such code. Required reading to abide by: Prof. Presser's Generative AI Guidelines
• Discussing algorithms, syntax, and problem specifications with other students
• Seeking assistance (as needed) from CS professors, students assistants, and approved tutors
• Use of "starter code" supplied by your professor, or code you have previously developed

What is not permitted:

• AI-generated code where (1) you have not included your prompts in comments, or (2) you do not understand, cannot explain, or have not tested such code.
• Sharing code: Verbal dictation of code, transference of code (e.g. e-mail, file transfer, entry of printed output, etc.).  An important component of this experiential learning process is developing the ability to independently devise algorithms and express them in program code.
• Viewing and/or using unauthorized code (e.g. solutions found online, downloads from code repositories, etc.)
• Submitting work that implicitly takes credit for work that should be credited to others
• Efforts to obscure the source of unauthorized work
• Outsourcing work

Put simply, students may discuss assignments at an abstract level (e.g. specifications, algorithm pseudocode), but must actually implement solutions independently or in permitted groups.  Credit should be given where credit is due.  Let your conscience be your guide.  Do not merely focus on the result; learn from the process.