About this course

CSCI 131 is a required course for CS majors introducing the fundamental concepts of programming languages (a/k/a PL a/k/a PLs). We’ll be using the functional programming language Haskell to study a variety of programming language features and implementation strategies. We’ll be covering topics like:

  • syntax and parsing
  • semantics and implementation
  • types and type safety
  • language design and trade-offs

As much as possible, we’ll learn by doing. There will be a lot of coding in this course! We’ll mostly be using Haskell as an implementation language—but we’ll also learn a lot about functional programming and PL in general by using it.

Instructor and TAs

This course is taught by me—Michael Greenberg. The TAs are Eric Campbell and Patrick Little. Our office hours are:

Day Time Location
Eric Campbell Sunday 7-9pm Edmunds 227
Patrick Little Monday 7-9pm Edmunds 227
Prof. Michael Greenberg Wednesday 3–5pm Edmunds 225

I’m available at other times by appointment—send me an email.

Piazza

We will be using Piazza for class discussion. Instead of emailing questions to me or the TAs, please post your questions on Piazza. If you have any problems or feedback for the developers, email team@piazza.com.

Requirements

You must have taken 52/62 (or 60/70 at Harvey Mudd), along with 81.

Software

Programs for this course will be run on the Pomona College Computer Science department’s lab facilities, based in Edmunds 227. You are welcome to use other computers to write and test your programs, but they must run on our facilities. You may log in remotely to any of the lab machines using ssh. Please do not log into any of our servers (e.g., project or xserv) to do homework.

If you do not have an account on the Pomona College Computer Science network, please request one immediately.

All of the work will be in the Haskell programming language. Haskell should already be available on all of the lab computers. To get started on your own computer, you’ll want to install the Haskell platform (8.0.1).

The easiest way to install Haskell on your own computer is via the Haskell platform (8.0.1). Most people I know use their preferred text editor—emacs, for me—with an appropriate mode for Haskell. FP Haskell Center’s IDE offers syntax highlighting and a few refactoring tools, but they don’t seem to have REPL support, so I can’t recommend it.

Lectures and readings

The course home page has a listing of lectures and readings. I expect you to finish assigned readings before class. Lecture listings far in the future (>1 week) are tentative.

Grading

There will be homework nearly every week, generally due on Wednesday night. There will be a midterm and a final. Your grade for the course will be determined by your aggregate grades on homework, quizzes, the midterm, and the final. There are four methods I can use to grade you:

Work % of grade (method 1) % of grade (method 2) % of grade (method 3) % of grade (method 4)
Quizzes 20 0 0 0
Homework 20 20 0 0
Midterm 25 35 40 0
Final 35 45 60 100

Your aggregated grade will be the best of the four methods. You don’t have to choose—I’ll calculate it automatically for you and choose the highest score.

Once aggregate grades are computed, I’ll assign letter graders. Letter grades are not curved in the classic sense (fitting to a distribution), but letter grade buckets will be relative to the histogram of aggregate grades.

Turning in homework

Homework will be a mix of code and written assignments, typically as a single Haskell file. You’ll submit homework via the new submission page.

The first four homeworks will be done in randomly selected pairs. After that, you’ll be allowed to work alone or in groups of up to three. An entire group only needs to submit once, but make sure that everyone who helped prepare submitters are listed on the submission.

If you have an issue with your group, please come to me as soon as possible so I can help you resolve it.

Homework that doesn’t compile, due to syntax or type errors, gets no points. Homeworks will be graded not only for correctness, but for clarity.

Late policy

Assignments can be turned in up to one day (24 hours) late, at a 25% penalty. Homework after that will get no points, though we can of course give you feedback.

Quizzes

I’ll hold quizzes nearly every week. I’ll let you know 24 hours in advance of each quiz; if you can’t make it, you can make it up by arrangement. Each quiz is just a small part of your grade—they’re meant to help me (and you!) assess what you are and aren’t learning.

Exams

Both the midterm and the final will be held in class. Both exams will have a mix of coding and writing. The final will be cumulative, covering all of the material in the course. According to the 5C exam schedule, our final exam will be on Monday, December 12th at 2pm in our usual classroom (Millikan 2113).

If you wish, I am happy to arrange an oral exam instead of a written exam. You must let me know a week in advance.

If you seek accommodations, please see the accommodation policy below.

Resubmission and regrading

You may resubmit one homework a week. Any given homework can be resubmitted only once, and I will only regrade the automatic parts. Your new grade will be calculated as a weighted average: 75% your new grade + 25% your old grade. You may not bank resubmissions to be redone in bulk—I really will only grade one per week. You may not resubmit a homework that you never turned in.

I’m happy to discuss solutions to homeworks one on one, but doing so means you can’t resubmit that homework.

Resubmission works best via email, not the submission page. If you don’t tell me that you’re resubmitting, I won’t notice.

Expectations

Learning any new language is hard—and I expect Haskell is rather different from what you’re used to. I encourage you to help each other learn the language. I hope the pair programming exercises will help you learn together.

However: all work in the course must be your own. As explained in the student handbook, this means that the work you turn in must represent only your own work. It must not be based on help from others or information obtained from sources other than those approved by the instructor. Examples of acceptable sources of information include:

Examples of unacceptable sources of information include:

  • Stack Overflow and Quora
  • #haskell

You should never read or copy another student’s solutions (code or otherwise), exchange files, or share your solutions with anyone else in the class until after everyone involved has turned in their work.

Please do discuss the homework though. If a discussion with another student helped you find your answer, mention that in a comment. It’s hard to tell the difference between uncredited help and plagiarism (because they’re the same thing).

Later in the course, you’ll be free to use any language you like, leaving you free to find and use libraries. Don’t go crazy! The goal of this course is your understanding, not working code. If you can’t explain your solution to a homework problem, I don’t care whether or not it works—you’ll get a zero.

If any of this is unclear, please: just ask me.

Failure to abide by these rules is considered plagiarism, and will result in severe penalties. The first offense typically results in failing the assignment and referral to the appropriate college office or committee—which may mean further consequences. See the CS Academic Honesty Policy and Pomona Academic Standards. for further information. Please don’t put anyone—me, you, or anyone else—in this unpleasant situation.

Accommodations

Pomona students seeking academic accommodations should contact Jan Collins-Eaglin in the Dean of Students Office. You’ll need to meet with Jan to discuss appropriate accommodations and provide documentation as necessary. If you want accommodations on exams or homework, it is your responsibility to inform me in advance.

Students from other colleges should contact their home college’s disability coordinator for accommodations. The coordinators are:

We’re in this together

This is my second time teaching this course. Let’s make a deal. My side: if things aren’t working, I’ll change them. Your side: if things aren’t working, you’ll tell me.