Time and Place: | MWF 1:30–2:20, Lane 100 (Geology building) |
Questions, answers, announcements: | Piazza signup and course page |
Other emails: | comp105-staff@cs.tufts.edu (primarily to notify us about extension tokens) |
Home page: | http://www.cs.tufts.edu/comp/105/ |
Instructor: | Norman
Ramsey, Halligan Extension 006 Office hours Monday 3:30–4:30, Thursday 2:00–3:00, and by appointment. |
Graduate TAs: | Bilal Ahmed |
Andrew Gallant | |
Teaching Assistants: | Max Alexander |
Matt Frey | |
Ariel Hamlin | |
Sam Haney | |
Andrew McGlathery | |
Juan Carlos Montemayor Elosua | |
Marshall Moutenot | |
Alex Polyakov | |
Matt Russell | |
Office hours: | Office hours are TBA |
What we look like: | Your course staff in pictures |
COMP 105 provides an introduction to the study of programming languages as an intellectual discipline. The elements of this discipline include specifications based on abstract syntax, lambda calculus, type systems, and dynamic semantics. You must be comfortable with recursion and with basic mathematical ideas and notations for sets, functions, etc.
COMP 105 uses the case-study method to give you experience with languages that go beyond the simple imperative paradigm. Case studies will cover languages from the functional, logic, and object-oriented families. Example languages may include Standard ML, Smalltalk, Scheme, and Prolog.
Case studies are reinforced by suitable programming exercises. COMP 105 assumes previous experience programming in imperative languages like C, C++, or Java. Good programming skills are essential, and we assume some knowledge of C. Plan to complete ten or twelve programming assignments over the course of the term. The more interesting or amusing assignments include Hindley-Milner type inference, arbitrary-precision arithmetic, and some game-playing programs.
COMP 105 is recommended for graduate students, especially those whose primary research interests lie in related fields such as compilers, software systems, or artificial intelligence. Graduate students whose primary interests lie in programming languages may find that COMP 105 overemphasizes programming practice and underemphasizes foundations.
Note: COMP 105 does not cover implementation of conventional, imperative programming languages, which are covered in COMP 181 (Compilers).
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