Syllabus
CSCI 3675
Organization of Programming Languages
Fall 2002

Class meeting 2:00-3:15 MW Austin 304
Instructor Karl Abrahamson
Office Austin 233
Office hours MW 11:00-12:30, TTh 11:00-12:00 or by appointment
Phone 328-1879
Email karl@cs.ecu.edu
Course web page www.cs.ecu.edu/~karl/3675/fall02/
My web page www.cs.ecu.edu/~karl/
Text Concepts of Programming Languages: A Unified Approach (May 2002) by Karl Abrahamson


Prerequisites

You should have had a course in data structures (CSCI 3510) and be familiar with one procedural programming language, such as C, C++ or Pascal.


Course objectives

Programming languages are the notation in which programmers express their creations. It is said that natural language influences how people think. Whether or not that is true, it is certainly the case that programming languages strongly influence how programmers think.

This course explores different kinds of programming languages: their philosophies, structure, advantages and disadvantages. The student should come away with an appreciation for different forms of programming languages, as well as an ability to use different programming styles (regardless of the language used) when the need arises.


Attendance policy

I will not take attendance. It is up to you to attend class. You are responsible for announcements and assignments given in class. If you miss a class, it is up to you to obtain notes and any other information that was provided in the class. Excuses that you did not know about something because you did not come to class and did not obtain the information will not count for anything at all.

Those who choose not to attend class can count on doing poorly in this course. If you choose not to attend class, then you must live with the consequences of that decision, however bad they are.

No incompletes will be issued in this course except for extraordinary circumstances, and even then only if you are nearly done already, and have done work of acceptable quality that it is realistic that you can pass the course.

Makeups of missed quizzes will only be offerred with a university-excused absence. If you miss a quiz without a university-excused absence, you will receive a grade of 0 for that quiz.


Grading

Grading will be on the basis of programming assignments and homework exercises (40%) five quizzes (35%, counting only the four best quizzes) and a final exam (25%).

Cutoffs for grades will tentatively by 90% for an A, 80% for a B, 70% for a C and 60% for a D. Those cutoffs will not be raised.


Outline

Topic Approx. time
Fundamentals (text, part I) 2.5 weeks
Imperative programming (text, part II) 1 week
Functional programming and evaluation of programs (text, part III) 3 weeks
Types (text, part IV) 2.5 weeks
Object-oriented programming (text, part V) 2.5 weeks
Handling failure (text, part VI) 0.5 week
Logic programming (text, part VII) 2 weeks


Weather emergencies

In the event of a weather emergency, information about ECU can be accessed through the following sources:

ECU emergency notices http://www.ecu.edu/alert
ECU emergency information hotline 252-328-0062


Students with disabilities

East Carolina University seeks to comply fully with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Students requesting accommodations based on a covered disability must go to the Department for Disability Support Services, located in Brewster A-114, to verify the disability before any accommodations can occur. The telephone number is 252-328-6799.