COMP 311 / COMP 544: Functional Programming (Fall 2023)
Instructor | Robert "Corky" Cartwright | ||
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Lectures | DCH 1064 | Lecture Times | 9:25 am–10:40 am TuTh |
| Instructor Email | cork@rice.edu | Online Discussion | Piazza – Rice Comp 311 |
Brief Description
This class provides an introduction to functional programming. Functional programming is a style of programming in which computations are solely expressed in terms of applications of functions to arguments (which themselves can be functions). This style of programming has a long history in computer science, beginning with the formulation of the Lambda Calculus as a foundation for mathematics. It has become increasingly popular in recent years because it offers important advantages in designing, maintaining, and reasoning about programs in modern contexts such as web services, parallel (multi-core) programming, and distributed computing. Coursework consists of a series of programming assignments in the Racket and Java programming languages followed by a discussion of frameworks for reasoning about functional and imperative programs supported by written homework assignments.
Grading, Honor Code Policy, Processes, and Procedures
Grading will be based on your performance on weekly programming assignments and two exams: a midterm and a final. All work in this class is expected to be your own, and you are expected not to post your solutions or share your work with other students, even after you have taken the course. Please read the Comp 311 Honor Code Policy for more details on how you are expected to work on your assignments. There will also be a final exam, as described in the syllabus.
All students will be held to the standards of the Rice Honor Code, a code that you pledged to honor when you matriculated at this institution. If you are unfamiliar with the details of this code and how it is administered, you should consult the Honor System Handbook. This handbook outlines the University's expectations for the integrity of your academic work, the procedures for resolving alleged violations of those expectations, and the rights and responsibilities of students and faculty members throughout the process.
Accommodations for Students with Special Needs
Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact me during the first two weeks of class regarding special needs. Students with disabilities should also contact Disabled Student Services in the Ley Student Center and the Rice Disability Support Services.
General Information
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| Textbooks and articles | There is no required textbook. We will follow the pedagogic approach of "How to Design Programs, First Edition" and extend it to other languages. The Second Edition of this book is the default at the website www.htdp.org but this web page contains a link to the first edition (at URL: https://htdp.org/2003-09-26/) at the bottom of the page. The two editions are very similar but this course tracks the first edition. We will draw material from a variety of sources, including:
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Lecture Schedule (In Progress)
| Tu | Aug 22 | Motivation and the Elements (Constants) of Racket | Skim HTDP First Edition, Part 1 (Ch 1-8), Part 2 (Ch 9-10) | ||
| Th | Aug 24 | Conditionals, Function Definitions, and Computation by Reduction | |||
| Tu | Aug 29 | Conditionals, Function Definitions, and Computation by Reduction | Review Ch 8 HTDP Part 2 (Ch 9-10) | Sep 04 | |
| 3 | Th | Aug 31 | The Program Design Recipe for Racket, which focuses on using recursion to process lists and natural numbers | Preface, 9.4 HTDP Part 2 (Ch 11-13) | |
| Tu | Sep 05 | Data Definitions, Data-driven Structural Recursion, | HTDP Part 3 | Sep 11 | |
| 5 | Th | Sep 07 | Mutually Recursive Definitions and Help Functions | HTDP Ch 15-17 | |
| Tu | Sep 12 | Local Definitions and Lexical Scope | HTDP Parts 5-6 | Sep 18 | |
| Th | Sep 14 | Lambda the Ultimate and Reduction Semantics | LawsOfEvaluation | ||
| Tu | Sep 19 | Functional Abstraction and Polymorphism | |||
| Th | Sep 21 | Functions as Values | Homework 4 | Sep 28 | |
10 | Tu | Sep 26 | Generative (Non-structural) Recursion | Homework 5 (long)* | Oct 11 |
11 | Th | Sep 28 | Lazy Evaluation and Non-strict Constructors | ||
12 | Tu | Oct 03 | Techniques for Implementing Lazy Evaluation | ||
13 | Th | Oct 05 | A Glimpse at Imperative Racket and Memoization | Sample Exam | |
| Tu | Oct 10 | Fall Recess | |||
14 | Th | Oct 12 | On to Java! Midterm (Through Lecture 13 and HW 5) 7-10 pm | Oct 23 | |
| Tu | Oct 17 | Adapting the HTDP Design Recipe to Java | |||
15 | Th | Oct 19 | Higher-order Functional Programming in Java | Homework 7 | Oct 26 |
16 | Tu | Oct 24 | Four Key Idioms for Encoding FP in Java | ||
17 | Th | Oct 26 | The Singleton and Visitor Patterns | Homework 8 | Nov 1 |
18 | Tu | Oct 31 | Java Generics and Their Role in FP in Java | ||
19 | Th | Nov 02 | Reasoning About Functional Programs | Homework 9* | Nov 8 |
20 | Tu | Nov 07 | First-order Programming Logic (an analog of ACL2 [UT Austin]) | ||
21 | Th | Nov 09 | Theorem Proving Strategies | Homework 10 | Nov 15 |
22 | Tu | Nov 14 | Hoare Logic | ||
23 | Th | Nov 16 | imperative Loop Invariants vs. Contracts for Help Functions | Homework 11 | Nov 27 |
| 24 | Tu | Nov 21 | Reasoning About Procedure Calls | ||
| 25 | Tu | Nov 28 | Hoare Logic Applied to OO Code | ||
| 26 | Th | Nov 30 | The Future of FP and Programming Logic |
*Assignments marked with * are double assignments that count twice as much as regular assignments.
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