Programming Paradigms and Formal Semantics

Winter Semester 2010/11

Prof. Dr. Ralf Lämmel

Instructor (Lecture): Prof. Dr. Ralf Lämmel
Assistant (Lab): Sebastian Jackel

Timeless course site

http://softlang.wikidot.com/course:plt

Copyright

All material is (C) Ralf Lämmel, unless stated otherwise.
Part of the material has been derived from work by others; see the particular files for credits.

Lecture schedule with linked slides

02.11.2010: Lecture: Introduction
03.11.2010: Lecture: Big-step Operational Semantics
08.11.2010: Lab: Simple exercises in Prolog
09.11.2010: Lecture: Small-step Operational Semantics
10.11.2010: Lecture: Type Systems
15.11.2010: Lab: Semantics and Types in Prolog
16.11.2010: Lecture: The Untyped Lambda Calculus
17.11.2010: Lecture: The Simply Typed Lambda Calculus
22.11.2010: Lab: More on Types in Prolog
23.11.2010: Lecture: Implementing Lambda Calculi in Prolog
24.11.2010: Lecture: Lambda Calculi with Polymorphism
29.11.2010: Lab: Lambda Calculi in Prolog
30.11.2010: Lecture: The Calculus of Communicating Systems
06.12.2010: Lab: CCS in Prolog
07.12.2010: Preparation for the Midterm
08.12.2010: Lecture: Introduction to Haskell
13.12.2010: Lab: First Steps in Haskell
14.12.2010: Lecture: Introduction to Haskell cont'd
15.12.2010: Lecture: Introduction to Haskell cont'd
20.12.2010: Lab: More Steps in Haskell
21.12.2010: Midterm exam
22.12.2010: No Lecture
10.01.2011: Midterm Exam Review
11.01.2011: Lecture: Introduction to Haskell cont'd
17.01.2011: Lab: Becoming fluent in Haskell
18.01.2011: Lecture: Denotational Semantics
19.01.2011: Lecture: Program Analysis
24.01.2011: Lab: Denotational Semantics in Haskell
25.01.2011: Lecture: The Expression Problem
26.01.2011: Lecture: Haskell's Type Classes
31.01.2011: Lab: Type Classes and Extensibility
01.02.2011: Parallelism I/II
02.02.2011: Parallelism II/II
07.02.2011: Lab: Going Bananas
08.02.2011: Preparation for the Final
09.02.2011: Lecture: Monads
14.02.2011: Lab: Q&A
15.02.2011: Course announcement
16.02.2011: Final exam

Important links

Assignments and solutions (svn access)
Past examinations: [*.pdf]
Twitter: @yaplcourse (used instead of email where appropriate)
Newsgroup: infko.paradigms (used for untwittable subjects)
Syllabus: [.html]

Information on svn access

All solutions for the assignments are to be submitted to svn.
You need to have access to the following repository.
https://svn.uni-koblenz.de/softlang/main/courses/paradigms1011/students/
Access rights will be granted by the lab assistent eventually.
Contact the lab assistant for svn-access-related requests.

Acknowledgement

See this course's slides for any specific credits given to any of the following slide decks.

Slides by Wlodek Drabent: Programming Theory (2009)
Slides by Graham Hutton: Programming in Haskell (2007)
Slides by Jaakko Järvi: Programming Languages - CPSC 604 (2009)
Slides by Nielson and Nielson: Semantics with Applications (1999)
Slides by Martin Odersky (Benjamin Pierce): Foundations of Software (2008)
Slides by Wolfgang Schreiner: Formal Models for Parallel and Distributed Systems (2009)

Book recommendations

Graham Hutton: Programming in Haskell, Cambridge University Press, 2007; also refer to additional material on the author's web site for the book.
Hanne Riis Nielson, Flemming Nielson: Semantics with Applications: A Formal Introduction, Wiley, 1992; Revised version of 1999 available online [.pdf].
Benjamin C. Pierce: Types and Programming Languages, MIT Press, 2002; also refer to additional material on the author's web site for the book.

The book by Pierce (available from the library) is strongly recommended as it covers a broad range of (operational) semantics and typing in a modern and widely praised manner. Some of the lectures will follow the book. The Haskell book by Hutton (available from the library) may not be needed for students with existing background in functional programming, or with access to another introduction to functional programming (with Haskell). In fact, the lecture and the lab may just provide enough material and pointers to suffice without a book on Haskell. Students who want to study Haskell more systematically and who are generally in favor of learning from books should consider this recommendation though. The book by Nielson and Nielson (available online [.pdf]) is recommended as it provides some general overview on formal semantics approaches and illustrations of the use of formal semantics. Some of the lectures will follow the book.