COMP 141 Spring 2018 Syllabus

Topics in evaluation, design, and development of programming languages. Topics include type systems, variables and scope, functions, parameter passing, data hiding and abstractions, recursion, memory allocation, grammars and parsing, compilers architecture, programming paradigms, and comparison of programming languages and environments.

Prerequisites: Completion of Fundamental Skills and COMP 053 with a "C-" or better.
When enrolling in this course, you should be relatively proficient in using some object‐oriented programming languages such as C++, Java or Python. In addition to being a competent programmer, you should have a working understanding of the following specific topics:

Pointers and Dynamic Memory Allocation

Inheritance, Polymorphism, and Templates

Fundamental Data Structures including vectors, lists, stacks, queues, and trees

Administration

Instructor: Sepehr Amir-Mohammadian
Email: [at] (samirmohammadian) ([dot] (pacific) (edu))
Lecture: TR 08:00AM - 09:45AM, Anderson Hall 107
Office hours: TR 1:00PM - 3:00PM, CTC 118
Students need to request alternate meeting times outside of scheduled office hours through email.

Teaching Assistant:
Email:

Learning Objectives

This course contributes to the following learning outcomes of the computer science program:

An ability to design computing systems of varying complexity, to evaluate the designs in terms of specified requirements, and to understand the design tradeoffs.
An ability to develop computing systems of varying complexity in accordance with specified designs and to evaluate the systems in terms of specified requirements.
An ability to apply elements of mathematics, computer science theory, development methodologies and other foundational knowledge as appropriate in the development of computing applications.
An ability to select and effectively use appropriate tools and techniques to support all stages of application development.
An ability to apply good communication skills in a variety of media.

Use multiple programming languages to write simple programs.
Identify the features that programming languages have in common and the ways that they differ, particularly between the four major programming paradigms.
Recognize features from known languages when learning a new programming language.
Describe how the features provided by programming languages are implemented by compilers and interpreters. Consider efficiency and readability in the design choices made while writing code.
Assess appropriateness of a language for a specific project.
Conduct research and report on technical information.

University of the Pacific Core Competencies: This course contributes to attainment of the following University of the Pacific core competencies:

Critical Thinking
Information Literacy
Oral Communication
Written Communication

Course Material and Schedule

We will use the textbook Programming Languages: Principles and Practice (3rd Edition) by Kenneth C. Louden and Kenneth A. Lambert. Purchase of this textbook is mandatory and other texts, including earlier editions of this textbook, will not be supported. Other course material including the slides, assignments, supplementary material, etc. will be provided through Canvas LMS.

The course schedule is as follows:

Week	Day	Topic	Homework assignment deadlines	Project deadlines	Technical paper deadlines
W1	1	Intro	HW1: intro, syntax
W1	2	Intro
W2	3	Syntax		P1: Scanner
W2	4	Syntax
W3	5	Functional programming
W3	6	Functional programming
W4	7	Intro to Parser Project	HW2: Functional programming, semantics
W4	8	Basic Semantics		P2: Parser
W5	9	Basic Semantics			Paper Proposal
W5	10	Functional programming
W6	11	Functional programming
W6	12	Data types	HW3: Functional programming, data types
W7	13	Data types
W7	14	Logic programming
W8	15	Midterm review			Paper Outline
W8	16	Midterm Exam (W1-7)	HW4: Logic programming
W9	17	Spring break
W9	18	Spring break
W10	19	Logic programming
W10	20	Control
W11	21	Control		P3: Interpreter
W11	22	Control	HW5: Control		Paper Draft
W12	23	OOP
W12	24	OOP
W13	25	ADTs	HW6: OOP, ADTs
W13	26	ADTs
W14	27	Presentations			Final Paper
W14	28	Presentations
W15	29	Presentations
W15	30	Final exam review

Grading and Attendance Policy

Grades for the course are assigned on the scale below:

A	A-	B+	B	B-	C+	C	C-	D+	D	F
[93,100]	[90,93)	[87,90)	[83,87)	[80,83)	[77,80)	[73,77)	[70,73)	[67,70)	[60,67)	[0,60)

Final grades will be assigned based on several performance factors. These factors and their quantitative contribution to the final grade are as follows:

In-class activities: 20%
Homework assignments: 20%
Course projects: 20%
Technical paper and presentation: 20%
Midterm exam: 10%
Final exam: 10%

Attendance: Class attendance and participation is necessary and expected. There will be numerous activities in class, and these activities cannot be made up outside of class. Participation requires that you are properly prepared for classroom discussions and activities, and have completed all reading assignments before the relevant class. Note that more than three unexcused absences will result in a 10% reduction of the final grade. The only acceptable excuses for missing a class, an assignment due date, or an exam are serious illness, family emergency or important professional, academic or athletic activities. Illness or family emergency may require documentation. Excuses for professional, academic or athletic activities must be approved by the instructor in advance. Students missing a class are responsible for making up the material discussed in that class on their own. Students are responsible for being aware of any announcements made during their absence.

Exams

Two exams will be conducted during the semester, a midterm and a final. The schedule will be announced in class and content and format will be discussed prior to the exams. Make up exams will only be scheduled in emergency situations.

Assignment Guidelines

Release and Submission: Homework assignments, course project descriptions, and technical paper requirements will be released on the course Canvas page with a clearly indicated due date. Solutions may be submitted electronically via Canvas, or in class on pencil-and-paper when appropriate. Submissions are accepted until 11:59PM on the due date.

Late policy: Deliverables will be accepted up to three weekdays late, with a 10% per day penalty.
All assignments will be considered individual efforts unless otherwise specified, and will be treated as such under the Academic Honesty Policy.

Academic Honesty

The Honor Code at the University of the Pacific calls upon each student to exhibit a high degree of maturity, responsibility, and personal integrity. Students are expected to:

Act honestly in all matters
Actively encourage academic integrity
Discourage any form of cheating or dishonesty by others
Inform the instructor and appropriate university administrator if she or he has a reasonable and good faith belief and substantial evidence that a violation of the Academic Honesty Policy has occurred.

Violations will be referred to and investigated by the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards. If a student is found responsible, it will be documented as part of her or his permanent academic record. A student may receive a range of penalties, including failure of an assignment, failure of the course, suspension, or dismissal from the University. The Academic Honesty Policy is located in Tiger Lore and online.

Course-specific Honor Code Policy: Engineering is generally a cooperative endeavor and collaborative learning can be a valuable experience for all involved. However, proper assessment (i.e., grading) requires that work be done by individuals. To balance these two requirements, the following policy will apply:

Collaborative work on course assignments is encouraged. This includes working together on planning solution strategies and helping each other to debug programs.
Collaboration must stop short of someone else writing your assignment. You may not directly copy the work of another student. You also may not copy the work of another student, and then modify it so that it does not look the same as the original author's work. It is your responsibility to ensure that the work you submit is an honest representation of your own understanding of the material.

Marginal cases will be resolved by oral examination of the student(s) involved. If they each understand the material in the assignment, it will be considered honest collaboration. If they do not, then it will be considered academic dishonesty.

In many cases, it may be possible to identify reusable source code from textbooks, web sites or other resources that can help you with assignments. You are permitted to use such references provided that:

The amount of code reused does not exceed 25% of the total assignment length, and
In the source code comments, you clearly identify any code that you did not write, state where it came from, and to what extent you modified it.

You are responsible for understanding the theory behind all algorithms or source code used, regardless of their source.

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

If you are a student with a disability who requires accommodations, please contact the Director of the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) for information on how to obtain an Accommodations Request Letter.

Student meets with the SSD Director and provides documentation and completes registration forms.
Student requests accommodation(s) each semester by completing the Request for Accommodations Form.
Student arranges to meet with his/her professors to discuss the accommodation(s) and to sign the Accommodation Request Letter.

To ensure timeliness of services, it is preferable that you obtain the accommodation letter(s) from the Office of SSD during the first week of class. After the instructor receives the accommodation letter, please schedule a meeting with the instructor during office hours or some other mutually convenient time to arrange the accommodation(s).

The Office of Services for Students with Disabilities is located in the McCaffrey Center, Rm. 137.

Nondiscrimination Policy

The University of the Pacific does not discriminate in the administration of any of its educational programs, admissions, scholarships, loans, athletics, or other University activities or programs on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin, handicap, sexual orientation or preference, sex or age.

COMP 141: Programming Languages

Course Description