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NOTE: This page is for an old offering of the course. To find the latest course offering, please visit https://comp311.rice.edu/.

COMP 311: Functional Programming (Fall 20152016)

Instructor	Dr. Eric Allen Dr. Corky Cartwright	Graduate TAs	Arghya "Ronnie" ChatterjeeYue Wang Lechen Yu
Co-Instructor	Dr. Sağnak Taşırlar	Undergraduate TAs	Chris Brown Cannon Lewis Jake Nyquist
Lectures	GRB W212DCH 1075	Lecture Times	28:30PM 00AM - 39:45PM 15AM TR
Course Email	comp311@ricecomp311_staff@rice.edu	Online Discussion	Piazza -- Rice Comp 311

Description

This class provides an introduction to concepts, principles, and approaches of functional programming. Functional programming is a style of programming in which the key means of computation is the application 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, multicore programming, and distributed computing. Course work consists of a series of programming assignments in the Scala programming language and various extensions.

Grading, Honor Code Policy, Processes, and Procedures

Grading will be based on your performance on weekly programming assignments. 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.

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

Course Syllabus

Homework Submission Guide

Office Hours

Eric	By Appointment	-	-
Corky	Wednesday Tuesday	4PM - 5PM	DH 2062
Ronnie	Friday	1:30PM - 2:30PM	DH 3002
, Thursday	2pm-4pm 9:15am-10:30am	DCH 3110 DCH 3104
Sagnak	Thursday	9:15am - 11:15am	DCH 2062
Lechen	Wednesday	1pm - 2pm	DCH 2069
Chris	Tuesday	1pm - 3pm	Duncan Commons
Cannon	Monday	3pm - 5pm	Jones Commons
Jake	Wednesday	1:55pm - 3:55pm	Will Rice Commons	Yue	Thursday	4PM - 5PM	DH 3113

Textbooks

There is no required textbook. We will follow the pedagogic approach of "How to Design Programs" but in a typed context. We will also draw material from a variety of sources, including:

Online Videos

Development Environment

The DrScala Pedagogic IDE is recommended for all homework assignments in this course.
You may also use IntelliJ IDEA. See the setup instructions for working with Scala projects in this course.

Lecture Schedule (Subject to Change Without Notice)

Conditional Functions on Ranges, Point Values, and Compound Datatypes

Semantics of Type Checking, Binary Methods, Abstract Datatypes

For Expressions, Monads, The Environment Model of Reduction

Call-by-Name, Environment Model of Type Checking, Generative RecursionHomework Evaluation, DrScala, Tests, Objects, Binary Methods, Operators

Week	Day	Date	Topic	Work Assigned	Work Due
1	Tues	Aug 2523	Overview, Motivation, Core Scala
	Thur	Aug 27	The Nature of Doubles, The Design Recipe	25	What are Types, Core Scala	Hwk 0
2	Tues	Sep 01	Aug 30	Doubles, Programming with Intention, The Design Recipe Type Checking, Conditional Functions, Compound Datatypes
	Thurs	Sep 0301	Grading, DrScala, Tests, Binary Methods, Operators	Hwk 1	Functions on Ranges, Point Values, Compound Datatypes
3	Tues	Sep 0806	Methods, Grading, DrScala Abstract Datatypes, Exceptions
	Thur	Sep 10	Exceptions, Overloading	08	Abstract Datatypes	Hwk 1
4	Tues	Sep 15Recursively Defined Datatypes13	Subtyping of Arrow Types, Exceptions
	Thur	Sep 17	First-Class Functions	15	Abstract Datatypes 2, Recursively Defined Types	Hwk 2
5	Tues	Sep 22The Expression Problem20	Recursively Defined Types 2, Functions as Values
	Thurs	Sep 24	Complexity Analysis		22	Higher-Order Functions	Hwk 2	Hwk 1
6	Tues	Sep 2927	Functions as Values, Polymorphic FunctionsParametric Types
	Thur	Oct 01	Referential Transparency, Call-by-Name	Hwk 3	Sep 29	Currying, Fold, Flatmap, and For Expressions		Hwk 2
7	Tues	Oct 06Generative Recursion 104	For Expressions, Monads, The Environment Model
		Thurs	Oct 08	Generative Recursion 2		06	"Growing a Language," Guy L. Steele, Jr.	Hwk 3	Hwk 2
8	Tues	Oct 1311	MIDTERM RECESS
	Thur	Oct 15	Guest Lecture (TBA)	Hwk 4	13	Scala Collections Classes, Traits		Hwk 3
9	Tues	Oct 20Tail Recursion and Accumulators18	Call-by-Name, Type Environments, Generative Recursion
		Thur	Oct 22	Comprehensions and flatMap		20	Strategies for Generative Recursion	Hwk 4	Hwk 3
10	Tues	Oct 2725	Accumulators Map, Reduce, Higher Order Functions
	Thur	Oct 2927	Functional Leftist Heaps and Binomial Heaps	Hwk 5	Data Structures		Hwk 4
11	Tues	Nov 03Functional Red-Black Trees01	Streams, State, Mutation
	Thur	Nov 05	Programs as Proofs		03	Mechanical Proof Checkin, The Curry-Howard Isomorphism	Hwk 5	Hwk 4
12	Tues	Nov 1008	The State MonadVariable Assignment and the Environment Model
	Thur	Nov 12	Mutable Objects, Equality	Hwk 6	10	Additional Scala Features, Extractors, Parser Combinators		Hwk 5
13	Tues	Nov 17Distributed Computing with Apache Spark15	More Parser Combinators, Actors and Concurrency
	Thur	Nov 19	Distributed Machine Learning		17	Tactical Theorem Proving	Hwk 6	Hwk 5
14	Tues	Nov 2422	Project FortressGuest Lecture (TBA)
	Thur	Nov 2624	THANKSGIVING
15	Tues	Dec 01	Nov 28	Functional Distributed ComputingPipelines and SparkML
	Thur	Dec 0301	Course Wrap Up		Hwk 6

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Description

General Information

Lecture Schedule (Subject to Change Without Notice)