Course Staff

Instructor

Course Information

Fall 2024
Meets: MW 2:30–4:00
Room: Bewkes 107
Course Requirements:

• Students must have completed CS-256. I assume that you have mastered the material in the courses leading up to, and including, 256.
• While not required, students are encouraged to have completed CS-220.
• Knowledge of object-oriented and imperative programming in Python and Java.
• Students will benefit from having access to a personal computer during class time. If you do not have a computer you can bring to class, please let me know ASAP.
• Students are expected to attend class regularly.

Required Materials

• Programming Language Pragmatics (4th Edition) by Michael L. Scott, Morgan Kaufmann, 2015.
  • This textbook is a Day 1 Digital resource available in Canvas under the Day 1 Digital tab. You may opt-out until 2024-09-11 by using the Opt-out tool in Canvas. For assistance or questions, please email bookstore@stlawu.edu.
  • Paper copies are available for ~$70 on Amazon [http://a.co/fXbR2pf] or ~$60 on Elsevier [https://www.elsevier.com/books/programming-language-pragmatics/scott/978-0-12-410409-9]
• Exploring ReasonML and functional programming by Axel Rauschmayer. (available for free online [http://reasonmlhub.com/exploring-reasonml/])
• Additional readings will be provided on the course website, where appropriate.
• Note that access to a computer with a network connection is necessary for this course.

Important Dates

Project due dates are subject to change. Exam dates are very unlikely to change. Changes will be announced in class and on the course website.

Description	Date
First Class Meeting	2024-08-28
Last Day to Add/Drop	2024-09-05
P1a Due	2024-09-11
P1b Due	2024-09-18
P2 Due	2024-09-27
Exam 1	2024-10-02
P3 Due	2024-10-11
Exam 2	2024-10-30
Pass/Fail Deadline	2024-11-01
P4 Due	2024-11-11
Last Day to Withdraw	2024-11-08
P5A Suggested Due	2024-11-22
No Class—Thanksgiving Break	2024-11-25/27
Exam 3	2024-12-04
Last Day of Class	2021-12-11
Final Exam Period (P5 and all assignments due)	2024-12-18

Course Overview and Goals

From the course catalog: Addresses several advanced topics in programming: the process of code interpretation, the principles behind the design of programming languages, and the paradigms of functional and concurrent programming.

You wrote a program in Python. How does a computer execute it? As computer scientists, we use programming languages on an almost daily basis but rarely consider how the text we write is translated and executed by a computer. Additionally, our choice of language significantly influences the way in which we represent a problem; different programming languages admit different programming paradigms.

In previous computer science courses, you developed proficiency programming using imperative and object-oriented paradigms (most likely in Python and Java). This course will expose you to, and help you develop proficiency with, the functional programming paradigm. We will be using the Reason programming language, a dialect of the OCaml programming language developed by Facebook.

Next, we will study how programming languages are designed and implemented. We will discuss lexing, parsing, variable bindings, control flow, types, subtyping, operational semantics, and method invocations. While the development of practical skills is a key goal of this course, we will also discuss the underlying theory of these topics. Using this knowledge, students will implement an interpreter for the Strings Numbers Arrays and Inheritance Language (snail).

In the remaining time at the end of the semester, we will cover additional topics related to programming languages, such as automatic memory management, compilation, concurrency, and exceptions.

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

1. Develop algorithms and manipulate data using functional programming paradigms.
2. Identify and describe the stages of an interpreter.
3. Interpret context-free grammars and operational semantics.
4. Use common tools for generating lexers and parsers.
5. Build a working interpreter for an object-oriented programming language.
6. Paraphrase core issues and concepts in programming language design and implementation.

Course Topics

As described in the course goals, topics in this course are split into three units. A rough ordering of topics is presented below, but is subject to change. The lectures page maintains a detailed description of topics covered so far in class.

1. Programming Languages and Paradigms
   • Introduction to Programming Languages
   • Functional programming with Reason
   • Functional paradigm in other languages
   • Introduction to the snail programming language
2. Programming Language Design and Implementation
   • Lexing and parsing a program
   • Semantic analysis and type-checking
   • Interpreting an object-oriented program
3. Additional Programming Language Issues and Concepts
   • Automatic memory management
   • Compiling code
   • Exceptions
   • Concurrency

Course Format

This course is being offered in a fully-synchronous format. We will facilitate your learning of the material through various instructional modalities, including classwork and homework. The following subsections describe the various activities you can expect this semester.

Weekly Lectures

Each week, there will be synchronous lectures during our scheduled course time. During these lectures, we will explore the topics covered by this course and develop the skills described in the learning goals section. Please review the attendance policy below for expectations about your presence at these lectures.

Lectures will be recorded and available on Canvas for students wishing to review material covered in this course.

Homework Assignments

Throughout the semester, you will have several different kinds of homework assignments to complete. Homework will be listed on the Lectures page of this site. Each assignment will also indicate which platform you should use for submitting your work.

Reading Quizzes

Readings will be assigned on a class-by-class basis. There will be a short quiz associated with each reading assigned for class. The purpose of these quizzes is to help students retain information for quick recall while completing homework assignments and to help maintain a steady pace of material during class meetings.

Quizzes will be available online via Gradescope and must be completed prior to the start of each class meeting (except for exams or as otherwise announced). There is no limit on the number of times a student may take a reading quiz before the deadline. Excluding special circumstances, reading quizzes may not be taken after the deadline has passed.

Programming Projects

There will be a total of five (5) programming projects during the semester. These exercises are intended to give you practice with and explore and concepts presented in class. Additionally, P3-P5 form a complete interpreter for snail, the Strings Numbers Arrays and Inheritance Language.

Unless otherwise noted, all assignments are due by 11:59 PM on the day listed to be eligible for full credit. Assignments should be submitted using the course's automated grading server.

These projects will require substantial time commitment on every student's part. Please refer to the individual project specifications as they are released for detailed instructions on how and what to submit and specific due dates. Points may be deducted for late assignments, and all assignments must be submitted no later than one week after the official due date to receive credit.

You will submit these projects through the St. Lawrence University Grading Server (SLUGS) running on Gradescope. This system will run your code against a suite of test cases and give you (near) immediate feedback. You may submit your code as many times as you wish. Assignments will remain open for one week after the official due date; however submissions made during this grace period will receive a grade deduction.

SLUGS will grade your submissions on:

• Functional correctness,
• Execution speed to obtain a correct solution, and
• Computer memory needed to reach a correct solution

For each project, I will conduct a final grading run after the deadline, where every student's project is run on the autograder, possibly with additional, hidden test cases. The purpose of the hidden test cases (they will be randomly generated cases, not the trickiest corner cases) is to ensure that your project works in general, and not just for the autograder. When conducting final grading, I will use the submission you select for grading on Gradescope.

The score resulting from final grading is the score that will go in the gradebook. This means that your overall highest displayed score on SLUGS may not necessarily be the score that goes in the gradebook. It is possible that your score may go up, stay the same, or go down as a result of the final grading. In particular, I will also look at your submitted code to judge the:

• principles and practices (readable code, efficient algorithms and implementation, comments, use of topics from class), and
• documentation of your solution.

A well-designed and commented, but slower solution may have its grade increased while a sloppy yet fast implementation may lose points.

You must email me if any circumstances prevent you from completing the assignment by the due date.

Exams

There will be three (3), 90 minute exams to check your mastery of tools and concepts in this class. Content for the exams may come from lecture, readings, and programming assignments and is cumulative.

I will notifice the class in advance if any of these exams require the use of a computer. If a student is unable to provide their own computer, please notify me 48 hours prior to the exam, and I will arrange for a loner machine. Make-up exams will not be given for absences unless approved by the instructor in extreme circumstances.

Note that there is no final exam for this course.

Attendance

Students are expected to attend each class meeting. Absences will leave holes in your understanding of course concepts. If you must miss a class, you are expected to make up the material on your own time before the next class. You are welcome to attend student hours if you have specific questions about the material you missed, but you will not receive any help if you ask, "what did I miss?" during student hours.

I do my best to post resources from class online (slides, audio recordings, etc.), but I write a significant amount on the board. This means you will need to review notes from a peer or rewatch the video recordings.

Grading

Final grades are based off of a cumulative point system. That means, for example, that 1 point from a reading quiz or project is equivalent to 1 point from an exam.

Your final grade will be calculated as follows. First, the percent of total possible points your eceived is calculated. Then, this percentage is mapped to a numeric grade on the 4.00 scale (see below). Note that I do not guarantee any particular rounding scheme for this calculation.

Toggle 4-Point Grade Mapping

Regrading Policy

Requests for an assignment regrade must be made in person to the instructor or using Gradescope within one week of the assignment being returned to the student and by the final day of classes. Any requests submitted after this may be done at my discretion. I reserve the right to regrade the entire assignment, which may result in either an increase or a decrease in your grade. This is not intended to scare off students, but to avoid frivolous requests.

Examples of appropriate reasons for requesting a regrade include:

• You believe your answer to a question matches the answer on the key.
• Your answer is different from the key, but is also correct.
• There is in error in the summation of points.

Examples of inappropriate reasons for requesting a regrade include:

• Your programming assignment works on your computer but not the grading server.
• Most of what you wrote on an assignment was correct, but you want more partial credit.
• You are one point away from an 3.75 and are trying to get extra points.

Extra Credit

There will be several opportunities for extra credit throughout the semester. In particular, you can receive extra points for discovering and documenting bugs in the reference implementation of snail, the langauge we will be implementing this semester. Should you find a bug, submit a minimal example along with a detailed description of the expected behavior and how this differs from the observed behavior. Students whoe discover a bug will receive N points per bug and all other students will receive N/2 points. (The value of N will be picked at the end of the semester and will be a constant value).

Electronics Policy

Students will need a computer with an internet connection to participate in this course. If you do not have access to a reliable computer, please contact me as soon as possible. There may be resources available to help.

Students are expected to remain on task during synchronous activities (no web browsing, social media usage, etc.), as per the professionalism policy. If you have any concerns about this request, please contact me outside of class, and we will work together to find an appropriate solution.

Generally speaking, I encourage taking notes by hand. At least one recent study found that students who took notes longhand remembered more and had a deeper understanding of the material. Rather than using slides, I typically take notes on the board, which will help you keep up if you are taking notes by hand.

Academic Integrity and Professionalism

As noted in the Academic Honor Code in the Student Handbook, "all students at St. Lawrence University are bound by honor to maintain the highest level of academic integrity." Please review the handbook for general guidelines. In particular, you should only be turning in your own work. You are expected to abide by the additional policies listed below. It is my responsibility to report violations of these policies to the Dean.

Students are also expected to act in a professional manner for the duration of the course. This includes (but is not limited to): staying on task during lectures, being respectful of others, avoiding extra use of electronics in class, and promptness for class and deadlines. Unprofessional behavior will result in a reduction of the student's final grade.

Assignment Policies

In addition to the general policies described in the Student Handbook, you are expected to follow the following policies, which are specific to this course.

Late Work

Unless otherwise noted or discussed, you must turn in your work within one week of the due date to receive credit. If you find yourself in a situation where this might not be possible, please contact me as soon as possible.

Collaboration

For several projects in this class, you will be working in groups. Teamwork imposes burdens of communication and coordination, but has the benefits of more thoughtful designs, cleaner programs, and (sometimes) higher bandwidth. Team programming is also the norm in the professional world.

Students on a team are expected to participate equally in the effort and to be thoroughly familiar with all aspects of the joint work. All members bear full responsibility for the completion of projects. Teams turn in one solution for each project. If a partnership is not going well, the instructor will help to negotiate new partnerships. Teams may not be dissolved in the middle of an assignment without instructor permission. If the instructor believes that there is unequal contribution to a project, students may be asked to schedule a meeting to discuss their work.

Unless otherwise noted, you must complete all other assignments in this course on your own.

You may discuss the assignments with your classmates, but you may not share code or written text. You may only submit work that you have personally written and understood. Always make a note in your code of your peers with whom you discussed an assignment

Resources

You may consult your class notes and the assigned reading materials to help with your assignments. You may also reference web resources (please read below about citations). Note, however, that you may not submit a third party tool that performs the tasks specified in a given assignment or text that you have not written (unless you are given explicit permission).

Your use of AI Assistants and LLMs (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot, Jetbrains AI, etc.) may be restricted for particular assignment for pedagogical reasons (i.e., to allow you to focus on practice foundational concepts). If this is the case, it will be noted in the assignment. If you are found to be using such a tool (or have such a tool enabled in your IDE), you will be in violation of the academic honor code.

You should know that fairly sophisticated plagiarism detection software will be used on the assignments. For more details, see the Academic Integrity and Professionalism section.

I will be available to answer questions during student hours. If you would like help, prepare specific questions. I will not help you write your code or answers from scratch (part of the learning process is experimentation), but I am more than happy to provide guidance if you run into trouble.

Citations

For all assignments, you must submit a file citing all of the resources (excluding class notes and assigned readings) you used to complete the assignment. This includes (but is not limited to) conversations with peers, web resources, and additional books. Use of AI, including the particular prompts used should be included in your citations. Failure to appropriately cite resources will be considered a breach of the honor policy and will be dealt with as described in this document. If, at any point, you are unsure about the citation policy, ask. Your grade is not affected by the number of resources you cite; I will not be impressed by low or high citation counts. Use the resources you need to complete the assignments!

In addition to following the practice of academic honesty, the purpose of these citations is to help you find resources when you look back at your work. If you were confused by something before, it's likely you might be confused by it again later.

Best Practices

When it comes to academic integrity and professionalism, it's best to ask questions if you are unsure. It has been my experience that most violations are acts of desperation or misunderstanding rather than ill will. I would rather you ask for help or clarification than commit an act of academic dishonesty.

As a general rule of thumb, when you are talking to someone (other than the instructor or partner) about work in this class, close all code that you are working on. If you cannot look at your code (or others' code!) while you are discussing content, it becomes significantly more difficult to violate these policies.

Tips for Success

Computer Science courses can often look and feel different from your other classes at St. Lawrence. Nevertheless, mature study habits can help you be successful and achieve your personal goals this semester. Many of these tips apply to courses across the curriculum, but a few are also specific to this particular class.

1. Start projects early, not the day before they are due. Humans are notoriously bad at estimating time; it's better to have too much time rather than too little.
2. Struggle through the frustration and don't give in to temptation to take shortcuts or use disallowed resources
   • This is part of the learning process (and why you should start early)
   • Take a break. Sometimes stepping away from a problem can give you new insights
   • If you've tried to solve a problem three times and it's still not making sense, then it is a good time to ask for help
3. Challenge yourself to ask questions and offer answers in class
   • Nothing bad happens if you make a mistake
   • If you have a question, you can be sure that at least two other people in class have the same question—ask it and help all three of you
4. Set aside time outside of class and keep a regular schedule of when you are going to study for this class
   • Do not use this time for other work or commitments unless you have already finished everything (including studying) for this class
   • As a rule of thumb, set aside two (2) hours of time for every one (1) hour of class
   • If you have academic accommodations, adjust the time you set aside to match
   • Find a place you can concentrate. There may be too many distractions in your room, so consider the library, PQRC, classroom, or majors' room
5. After each class, review the code and notes you took
   • Try to figure out anything you didn't understand in class before the next class. You don't want confusion to compound.
   • Fix any typos or mistakes that you find
   • Add additional comments to your code to explain ideas
   • Make extra notes to clarify what you wrote down and complete any examples that were left for you to do
   • Create a list of questions you have about the material
6. Do the assigned reading
7. Show up for student hours
   • This is a great time to ask your questions!
   • You don't need questions to attend, however. You might use this time for some of your set-aside review
8. Come to class; watching the recordings is not a substitute for attending
9. Make sure that your development environment is in “a good state”
   • No errors in your IDE settings
   • Code from previous classes works without crashing
   • GitHub/Git/OneDrive are up to date and do not have any conflicts

Mental Health and Wellbeing

St. Lawrence University is committed to advancing the mental health and wellbeing of its students. If you or someone you know is feeling overwhelmed, depressed, and/or in need of support, services are available.

For help, contact the Diana B. Torrey '82 Health and Counseling Center at (315) 229-5392 Monday through Friday from 8:30 AM–4:30 PM. After hours, call Campus Safety at (315) 229-5555 to speak with the after-hours crisis counselor. The nation-wide 24/7 crisis counselor service can be reached by calling (315) 229-1914.

For more details, visit https://www.stlawu.edu/health-and-counseling-services.

Accommodations

Student Accessibility Services

Your experience in this class is important to me. It is the policy and practice of St. Lawrence University to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law. If you have already established accommodations with the Student Accessibility Services Office, please meet with them to activate your accommodations so we can discuss how they will be implemented in this course.

If you have not yet established services through the Student Accessibility Services Office but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), please contact the Student Accessibility Services Office directly to set up a meeting to discuss establishing with their office. The Student Accessibility Services Office will work with you on the interactive process that establishes reasonable accommodations.

Color Vision Deficiency:

If you are color vision deficient, the Student Accessibility Services office has on loan glasses for students who are color vision deficient. Please contact the office to make an appointment.

For more specific information about setting up an appointment with Student Accessibility Services please see the options listed below:

SAS Contact Information

Telephone: 315.229.5537

Email: studentaccessibility@stlawu.edu

Website: https://www.stlawu.edu/offices/student-accessibility-services

Diversity and Equity Statement

As indicated by the University's Statement on Diversity and the student handbook, we are committed to treating students fairly and with dignity regardless of age, color, creed, disability, marital status, national origin or ancestry, race, religion, sex (including gender identity and gender expression), sexual orientation, and/or veteran status.

It is my intent that students from all diverse backgrounds and perspectives be well served by this course, that students' learning needs be addressed both in and out of class, and that the diversity that students bring to this class be viewed as a resource, strength and benefit. Should you have any concerns, problems, or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me. I strive to make my classrooms safe spaces for learning.

Please also feel free to talk to me about events that happen outside my classroom. If you do not feel comfortable talking to me, there are many other resources available to you on campus, including those on this list of on-campus resources: https://www.stlawu.edu/diversity-and-inclusion/campus-resources.

You can report a bias incident here: https://www.stlawu.edu/diversity-and-inclusion/bias-reporting.

Title IX

MEMBERS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE COMMUNITY—students, employees, and guests— should expect to be free from retaliation, discrimination, harassment, and sexual misconduct, behavior that is inherently abusive of the humanity that each of us brings to the campus community. St. Lawrence University and its faculty are committed to supporting our students and seeking an environment that is free of discrimination, harassment, and sexual misconduct. St. Lawrence strongly encourages students to report retaliation, discrimination, harassment, including sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, or sexual assault to St. Lawrence University's Title IX office. Discrimination on the basis of sex includes discrimination on the basis of assigned sex at birth, sex characteristics, pregnancy and pregnancy related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

If you speak with a faculty member about an incident that involves a Title IX matter or matter of other discrimination or harassment, that faculty member must notify SLU's Title IX Coordinator that you shared that experience. This is true even if you ask the faculty member not to disclose the incident. Moreover, if you disclose an incident of retaliation, discrimination, harassment, or sexual misconduct in an academic assignment, the faculty member must also report that experience to the Title IX Coordinator.

Once a report is made, the reporting individual can expect to receive email outreach from the Title IX Coordinator, who will provide resources and possible resolution options. If the impacted person is not a threat to themselves or others, the impacted person will be free not to respond to the offer to meet. You can find more information for resources and reporting options at: https://www.stlawu.edu/offices/title-ix/reporting-options-confidential-and-nonconfidential-resources.

Title IX also protects students who are pregnant or need assistance for pregnancy related conditions. If you are pregnant, the Title IX Coordinator can assist you in understanding your rights and options as well as provide supportive measures.

Lindsey Tropper (Cohen) is the Title IX Coordinator at St. Lawrence University (Student Center Room 302; lcohen@stlawu.edu; 315-229-5334).

PQRC

The Peterson Quantitative Resource Center (PQRC) offers free, no appointment necessary peer tutoring across a range of courses with quantitative content. The PQRC student staff of mentors is trained to assist students to develop and to improve their quantitative skills and understanding. More information about the PQRC's current hours and modes of operation can be found at the PQRC webpage: www.stlawu.edu/pqrc.

Research

Your class work might be used for research purposes. For example, we may use anonymized student assignments to design algorithms or build tools to help programmers. Any student who wishes to opt out can contact the instructor to do so up to seven days after final grades have been issued. This has no impact on your grade in any manner.

Right to Revise

This is a "living syllabus". Therefore, its contents may be changed throughout the course of the semester to address changing needs. I will do my best to notify students of changes; however, it is up to the student to monitor this page for any changes. Final authority on any decision in this course rests with the instructor (i.e., Kevin Angstadt), not with this document.

Many ideas for this class were borrowed from similar classes taught at UVA, UC Berkley, Cornell, and St. Lawrence University