OVERVIEW

Principles of programming languages: syntax, static and dynamic semantics, and intepreters.

Functional programming: OCaml.

Object-oriented programming: Java.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• the course requires a good knowledge of imperative programming, and provides foundational notions on high-level programming and skills on theory and practice of programming paradigms, with emphasis on the functional and object-oriented ones.

• students will extend their skills acquired in the introductory courses on programming in the small, and
  learn to develop applications starting from informal requirements and use integrated development environments

   

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students will acquire the following skills:

• use of the basic concepts of the object-oriented paradigm for modeling data and programming in the small; development of Java programs structured modularly to favor code reuse.
• comprehension, correct use and implementation of common object-oriented design patterns 
• use of the basic concepts of the functional paradigm for programming in the small; development of OCaml programs based on the most common functional programming techniques
• comprehension of the specification of a programming language and its underlying implementation issues

TEACHING METHODS

Standard

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Principles of programming languages: overview, programming paradigms; syntax, static and dynamic semantics, development of a semantics-driven interpreter.
Object-oriented paradigm (the Java programming language): objects, classes, inheritance and dynamic binding, casting, overloading, exceptions. Advanced features: generic classes and methods, outline on nested classes and lambda-expressions. Practical uses of the standard API, iterator and visitor design pattern. 
Functional paradigm (the OCaml programming language): higher-order and polymorphic functions, polymorphic type inference, currying, functions on lists, user-defined types.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

-Davide Ancona, Giovanni Lagorio, Elena Zucca. Linguaggi di Programmazione. Città Studi Edizioni.
-Ken Arnold, James Gosling, and David Holmes. The Java Programming Language, Fourth Edition, Prentice Hall.
-Emmanuel Chailloux, Pascal Manoury, and Bruno Pagano. Developing Applications With Objective Caml.
-Josh Bloch. Effective Java (second edition). Prentice Hall.  (advanced, optional)
-Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides. Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. Addison-Wesley. (advanced, optional)

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

DAVIDE ANCONA (President)

LUCA FRANCESCHINI

GIOVANNI LAGORIO

PAOLA MAGILLO

ELENA ZUCCA

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Prerequisites: basic notions of imperative programming, and algorithms and data structures.

Class schedule

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES AND OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Written and oral test. Final software project.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Use of the basic concepts of the object-oriented paradigm for programming in the small: development of a software project, Java comprehension and programming exercises assigned at the written and oral (if needed) test. 

Comprehension, use and implementation of the iterator and visitor design patterns: development of a software project, Java programming exercises assigned at the written and oral (if needed) test. 

Use of the basic concepts of the functional paradigm for programming in the small: OCaml programming exercises assigned at the written and oral (if needed) test. 

Comprehension of the specification of a programming language and its underlying implementation issues: development of a software project, exercises on regular expressions and context free grammars assigned at the written and oral (if needed) test. 

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Core knowledge initially required includes imperative programming and data structures and algorithms.