CIS-3030 (Programming Languages) Home Page

This is the home page for Peter Chapin's CIS-3030 course notes for the Fall 2013 semester. Here you will find class slides, homework assignments, program samples, and links to other references of interest.

Learn You a Haskell for Great Good is the official text of this course. You can read it for free online or order a paper copy.
The homework submission area and gradebook are on Moodle but all other course resources are here.
I have prepared some notes explaining how to install Haskell on your own computer.

Adobe Connect

What follows is a list of topics covered in the lectures during this edition of CIS-3030. The Adobe Connect recordings are no longer available.

— Topics below are subject to change —
Introduction to the course and the tools we will use. First look at Haskell via the interactive environment.
Demonstration of writing simple functions using tuples, lists, and various other features. Introduction to list comprehensions.
More on list comprehensions and an introduction to pattern matching.
Introduction to curried functions and higher order functions.
Preparation for Homework #2. First look at PNG files. Development of the checkCRC function.
Some discussion on setting up Git and Eclipse for Homework #2. A further look at the PNG chunk manipulation functions.
Further discussion of using recursion to implement repeated execution of code (loops). Refactored the PNG CRC checksum function to consolidate its parts into a single definition.
Answered questions about Homework #2. Discussed "point free" style and tail recursion. Introduced the concept of type classes.
Introduced how to define algebraic data types. Implemented a few basic tree handling functions.
Reviewed the solution to Homework #2. Introduced the basic concept of logic programming and went over my first Mercury program.
Introduction to the theory of formal languages and context-free grammars.
More detailed discussion of DFAs and regular languages.
Reviewed Haskell function for simulating a DFA. Introduced Turing machines.
Continued discussion of Turing machines.
Reviewed defining algebraic data types. Introduced type constructors and record syntax.
Value constructors as functions. Introduced the Maybe and Either type constructors.
Using user-defined data types to improve the PNG manipulation module. Practical demonstration of the Either type.
Introduced doing I/O with Haskell. Discussion of I/O actions and basic filtering and file handling.
More I/O with Haskell. Discussion of the improved PNG program that reads and writes PNG files and uses ByteStrings.
Discussion about subtyping and variance (covariance of arrays in Java). Introduction to function subtyping.
Discussed dynamic languages. Started discussing calling conventions.
Completed the discussion of calling conventions and started discussion about nesC.
Completed the discussion of nesC and component-oriented languages.
First round of presentations.
Second round of presentations.
Final round of presentations.

Homework

If you need to edit the samples I provide, I recommend making a branch in the code sandbox repository for each assignment. All homework assignments should be submitted electronically via Moodle by midnight on the due date. Remember to include your name on each submission. Late submissions are not accepted!

Homework #1. Due: Wednesday, August 28, 2013.
Homework #2. Due: Wednesday, September 18, 2013.
Homework #3. Due: Friday, November 1, 2013.
Homework #4. Due: Friday, November 22, 2013.

Samples

The following links reference some of the samples discussed in class (with supporting notes in many cases). Read over the source files and be sure to experiment with the code!

— Samples below are subject to change —
Sample #1. This sample shows off some basic functions. Tuples, lists, and list comprehensions are briefly demonstrated along with some other details.
Sample #2. This sample demonstrates some basic pattern matching constructs. Pattern matching is an essential technique in Haskell programming that you will see again and again.
Sample #3. This sample demonstrates curried functions and a few higher order functions. Using higher order functions is another essential Haskell programming technique.
Sample #4. This sample demonstrates the basic concept of point free style, tail recursive functions, and an introduction to type classes.
Sample #5. This sample demonstrates defining your own algebraic data types and using pattern matching to define functions over those types.
Sample #6. This sample illustrates using the Maybe and Either type constructors for indicating errors.

Haskell Function of the Day

The following documents each showcase a single function (or sometimes a few related functions) in the Haskell libraries.

Slides

— Slides below are subject to change —
University of Virginia CS-1501 "Introduction to Haskell" slides. Spring 2013, by Adarsh Solanki

Articles

Some case studies of Haskell being successfully used in real world commercial products.
Web programming in Haskell, part I. This article looks at Fay, a Haskell to JavaScript compiler (allowing you to program the browser with Haskell).
Web programming in Haskell, part II. This article talks about web frameworks for Haskell.

Videos

Functional Programming Fundamentals, a 13-part lecture series on functional programming (using Haskell) given by Dr. Erik Meijer. These lectures are on Microsoft's "Channel 9."
Rich Hickey and Brian Beckman - Inside Clojure. Two experts discuss the nature of Clojure.