Course Details in

Module Title	Principles of Programming Languages
School	Computer Science
Department	Computer Science
Module Code	06 02552
Module Lead	Prof U D Reddy
Level	Honours Level
Credits	10
Semester	Semester 1
Pre-requisites	Models of Computation - (06 05934)
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None, but Compilers and Languages (06 02578) would be an ideal complement to the course
Contact Hours	Lecture-23 hours Practical Classes and workshops-11 hours Total: 34 hours
Exclusions	none
Description	It can be argued that the development and study of high-level programming languages is a central task for computer science research, and enormous progress has indeed been made from the machine-level coding of the 40s to today's functional and object-oriented languages. In this module, we will study the features that have emerged as recurring themes in high-level languages, though they are expressed in a variety of ways. We will use the lambda calculus as a meta language to express theses features concretely and precisely. At this level of abstraction, 'computation' becomes 'evaluation' of expressions, rather than the execution of machine instructions. We will look at ways to specify this process in a precise fashion and thus discover some key design decisions that have to be made when developing a concrete language. Types can be used to constrain the range of valid programs and thus help the programmer to develop well-structured code. We will see how polymorphism and subtyping extend the expressivity of simple type disciplines without sacrificing semantics.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module the student should be able to: - demonstrate fluency in reading, constructing, and manipulating expressions in the lambda calculus (assessed by: examination and continuous assessment) - execute specific evaluation strategies for lambda calculi with effects (assessed by: examination and continuous assessment) - relate features of concrete programming languages to abstract principles (assessed by: examination and continuous assessment) - assign types from various type disciplines to program expressions (assessed by: examination and continuous assessment)
Assessment	02552-01 : Examination : Exam (Centrally Timetabled) - Written Unseen (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	1.5 hour examination 80%, continuous assessment 20%. Resit (where allowed) by examination only.
Other	None
Reading List