CS358 Principles of Programming Languages Winter 2025

Course Information

Course Catalog Description

Syntax and semantics. Compilers and interpreters. Programs as data. Regular expressions and context free grammars. Programming paradigms, including procedural, functional, and object-oriented programming. Type systems, including dynamic and static typing disciplines. Binding, scope, data abstraction, and modularity. Denotational, operational, and axiomatic semantics. Introduction to program correctness.

Format

• Class meetings will be conducted in person.
• Classes will include a mixture of lectures and live problem solving. A laptop will sometimes be useful.
• Each class will have slides and/or lecture notes, which will be made available before each class.
• Attendance at all class meetings is expected, although it will not factor explicitly into your grade.
• Classes will be recorded but quality (especially whiteboard visuals) may not be high. Recordings will be made available on Canvas. Listening to recordings is generally not a good substitute for class attendance.

Textbook

There is no required textbook.

Prerequisites

CS302, CS314(=CS300), CS350 passed with grades of C or better. CS202 is an acceptable subtitute for CS302. It is assumed that you have substantial programming experience in C/C++ and some experience using Python.

Requirements and Grading

• Course grade is based on three different kinds of required course activities:
  • Weekly practice exercises (25%)
  • Term-long interpreter implementation project (45%)
  • Term-long language analysis report (30%)
• There are no exams.
• Weekly exercises are not graded; you will receive credit for any good-faith attempt submitted by the deadline.
• Each project and report milestone will be given a point score according to a rubric.
• Course letter grades will be assigned on a sliding scale based on your total point score. There are no absolute percentages associated with the different grades. We will calculate your preliminary grade at various points during the term.

Computing Resources

• You will need access to a system running Python3.12 (or later).
• Depending on your choice of domain-specific extension for the implementation project, you may need additional auxiliary software. For example, if you choose the music composition option, you'll want software to play MIDI files.
• We strongly recommend installing Python on your own computer.
• It is also possible to use a CS linuxlab machine, or the linux.cs.pdx.edu server.
• Unless you already have a strong commitment to another editor, we recommend using VS Code, with the plugins for Python, Python Debugger, Pylance (type checker), and GitHub Copilot (use with due caution!). (You can also use VS Code on your machine to work on a code base on a remote machine using the Remote-SSH plugin.)
• If you have difficulties setting up your Python environment, contact the instructor or TA (or ask on the course slack channel; this is a place where crowd-sourcing can be very effective!).

Schedule

This schedule is tentative and all aspects (including due dates) are subject to change.
All deliverables are due at noon on the specified date.

Week	Date	Due	Class Topic
1	Jan 6		Course Introduction
	Jan 8		Python Review
2	Jan 13	Exercises 1	Expressions, Bindings, Scope
	Jan 15		Representing and Interpreting Programs in Python
3	Jan 20	Exercises 2	MLK Day (no class)
	Jan 22		Interpreters and Compilers
4	Jan 27	Exercises 3	Syntax: Regular Expressions
	Jan 29	Project MS 1	Syntax: Context-free grammars
5	Feb 3	Exercises 4	Removing ambiguity; Practical parsing
	Feb 5		Functions and parameters
6	Feb 10	Exercises 5	Memory layout; closures
	Feb 12	Analysis MS 1	First-class functions
7	Feb 17	Exercises 6	Statements
	Feb 19	Project MS 2	Imperative programming and mutation
8	Feb 24	Exercises 7	Data structures
	Feb 26		Products; sums; recursion
9	Mar 3	Exercises 8	Types
	Mar 5		Static Analysis; Safety
10	Mar 10	Project MS 3	Object-oriented programming
	Mar 12	Exercises 9	Programming in the Large
11	Mar 17	Final Project (corrections only)	(Finals week)
	Mar 19	Final Report

Policies

Individual work

• You are allowed--indeed encouraged--to collaborate with other students on the practice exercises. However, you must prepare and submit your solutions individually to receive credit.
• Your submitted implementation project and analysis report must represent your own individual work, which you must be able to explain and justify in detail upon request. You are allowed to discuss the requirements and technical issues that arise with other students (and of course with the instructor or TA), but do not share code or text.
• You are permitted to use AI tools such as CoPilot to help get your Python code working, but please do not use them to synthesize code from scratch or to produce text for your report.
• Plagiarism of code or text, with or without the knowledge of the original author, will result in an automatic zero grade and the initiation of disciplinary action at the University level.

Electronics in the Classroom

• You are encouraged to bring a (well-charged) laptop to class, as this will sometimes be useful for in-class exercises. (However, as long as roughly 50% of the class brings a laptop, that will suffice.)
• You are welcome to use your electronic device (laptop, tablet, phone, etc.) to take notes during class (although you also consider using a pen and paper).
• Please do not use your electronic devices for other purposes (web surfing, playing games, messaging, working on other courses) during class, because this behavior can be extremely distracting to other students (as well as to you, obviously).

Title IX Reporting Obligations

• Portland State is committed to fostering a safe, productive learning environment. Title IX and our school policy prohibit gender or sex-based discrimination and sexual misconduct (including harassment, domestic and dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking).
• We expect a culture of professionalism and mutual respect in our department and class. You may report any incident of discrimination or discriminatory harassment, including sexual harassment, to either the Office of Equity and Compliance or the Office of the Dean of Student Life.
• Please be aware that members of the faculty have the responsibility to report any instances of sexual harassment, sexual violence and/or other forms of prohibited discrimination to PSU’s Title IX Coordinator, the Office of Equity and Compliance or the Dean of Student Life and cannot keep information confidential. If you would rather share information about sexual harassment or sexual violence to a confidential employee who does not have this reporting responsibility, you can contact a confidential advocate at 503-894-7982 or by scheduling on-line or another confidential employee found on the sexual misconduct resource webpage.

Disabilities

• If you have, or think you may have, a disability that may affect your work in this class and feel you need accommodations, contact the Disability Resource Center to schedule an appointment and initiate a conversation about reasonable accommodations.
• If you already have accommodations from the DRC, please contact the instructor so we can discuss them.
• The DRC is located in 116 Smith Memorial Student Union. You can also contact the DRC at 503-725-4150 or at drc@pdx.edu.

Recording

• Course meetings will be recorded. Our use of recording technology is governed by FERPA, the Acceptable Use Policy and PSU's Student Code of Conduct. A record of all meetings and recordings is kept and stored by PSU, in accordance with the Acceptable Use Policy and FERPA. Your instructor will not share recordings of your class activities outside of course participants, which include your fellow students, TAs/GAs/Mentors, and any guest faculty or community based learning partners that we may engage with. You may not share recordings outside of this course. Doing so may result in disciplinary action.