A study of the basic design of computer programming languages, with greater emphasis placed on semantics (over syntax). A comparative analysis is made among several of the common languages.
This course will consist primarily of active student-collaborative lectures, in-class presentations, homework assignments, and hands-on experience with one or more new and novel programming languages. This course will include an on-going programming language project. This project will require students to acquire in-depth knowledge about a chosen, unfamiliar (to them) programming language, along with minimal programming competence in their chosen language. The project will include both a written and oral report.
See the GFU CS/IS/Cyber policies for collaboration and discussion of collaboration and academic integrity. Most students would be surprised at how easy it is to detect collaboration in programming—please do not test us! Remember: you always have willing and legal collaborators in the faculty.
Almost all of life is filled with collaboration (i.e., people working together). Yet in our academic system, we artificially limit collaboration. These limits are designed to force you to learn fundamental principles and build specific skills. It is very artificial but intensional for your own benefit. The only way for you to learn is by doing the work.
To be clear, do not:
The mission and vision statement of the Computer Science & Information Systems (CSIS) program states that our students are distinctive by "bringing a Christ-centered worldview to our increasingly technological world."
As one step towards the fulfillment of this objective, each semester, the engineering faculty will collectively identify an influential Christian writing to be read and reflected upon by all engineering faculty and students throughout the term. As part of the College of Engineering, CSIS students participate in this effort, known as Engineering Your Soul (EYS). This exercise will be treated as an official component of every engineering course (including CSIS courses) and will be uniquely integrated and assessed at my discretion, typically as a component of the quiz grade.
Students have three options for satisfying the EYS requirement.
The deadline for all of these options is the Wednesday the week after the group meetings.
All the reflections should be posted to the canvas EYS course. A reflection should be 100 or more words and should consist of your personal thoughts on the book and/or meeting, not simply a summary of the book.
Besides EYS, I am always available to discuss the Christian faith if you have any questions or doubts. Send me an email, come by my office hours, or talk to my after class, Christ is the reason I am at GFU, I always have time to talk about faith.
The final course grade will be based on:
Week 1Introduction: Design, History & Implementation of Languages
Reading: 1.1 – 1.8 & 2 & Project |
Week 2Describing Syntax, Grammars & Semantics
Reading: 3.1 – 3.5 |
Week 3Lexical Analysis
Reading: 4.1 – 4.2 |
Week 4Parsing
Reading: 4.3 – 4.4, skim 4.5 |
Week 5Names & Variables, & Scope
Reading: 5.1 – 5.6 |
Week 6Primitive Types, Arrays, Structures, Pointers & References, Type Checking
Reading: 6.1 – 6.14 |
Week 7Arithmetic & Boolean Expressions & Assignments
Reading: 7 |
Week 8Sequential & Conditional Flow & Iteration
Reading: 8.1 – 8.3 |
Week 9Subprogramming, Parameter-Passing Mechanisms, & Functions
Reading: 9.1 – 9.12 |
Week 10Object Oriented Programming
Reading: 12 |
Week 11Functional Programming
Reading: 15 |
Week 12Student Presentations
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Week 13Student Presentations
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Week 14Student Presentations
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Week 15Student Presentations
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