Keith J. O'Hara

teaching

CMSC 305

Design of Programming Languages

overview | logistics | schedule | assignments | presentations | resources

Lecture: Tue & Thu 8:30am-9:50am (RKC 100)
Lab: Fri 1:30pm-3:30pm (RKC 100)
Office Hours: Tue & Wed 10am-11am and by appointment

Texts (any edition will do, including freely available versions)

• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. 2nd Edition. Hal Abelson, Jerry Sussman and Julie Sussman. MIT Press. 1984. [prettier version]
• Essentials of Programming Languages. 3rd Edition. Daniel P. Friedman and Mitchell Wand. MIT Press. 2009.



• The Scheme Programming Language. 4th Edition. R. Kent Dybvig. 2009.
• Programming in Lua. 4th Edition. Roberto Ierusalimschy. 2016.
• Eloquent JavaScript. 3rd Edition. Marijn Haverbeke. 2018.
• JavaScript Allongé. "Six Edition." Reginald Braithwaite. 2019.
• Exercises in Programming Style. Cristina Videira Lopes. Routledge. 2014.

Grade Breakdown

• Midterms (40%): Two paper & pencil exams
• Labs (20%): Weekly programming assignments (one a week)
• Quizzes and Homework (15%): Shorter assignments (almost every class)
• Presentations (10%): Presentations of programming languages
• Project (15%) : An implementation of LISP in a new programming language (or your own programming language in LISP)

Policies

• Attend class.
• Be on time.
• Participate.
• Complete all assignments and start early.
• Check Google Classroom & this class website.
• Come to class prepared. Make sure to have read the required reading BEFORE class.
• When reading, studying, and listening, be active by taking notes, writing and asking questions.
• Be respectful of your fellow classmates; my rule of thumb for judging whether a response is worthwhile: Is it Nice? Is it True? Is it Necessary? Pick at least two.
• Adhere to the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct for the Association for Computing Machinery.
• Network outages and other computer problems are not valid excuses for missing deadlines; take this into account in your planning.
• Cooperate, but don't copy.
  • Credit work, including all sources you used from the web, other books, etc.
  • Sharing ideas is encouraged, but blatantly copying work without attribution will be treated as scholastic dishonesty and receive no credit.
  • Be prepared to demonstrate the theory of your program (Peter Naur)
  • Keep your assignment and lab work private, a USB flash drive is recommended.
• In general, no credit will be given for programs that do not compile.
• No late work will be accepted unless an extension is approved two days before the deadline.
• Quizzes and exams cannot be taken late without prior special permission.