X-Git-Url: http://lambda.jimpryor.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=lambda.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=index.mdwn;h=51536cc8357c62b6245a874c27d24ce819c8a60a;hp=026cdf8f92a4e2cf5be45ccfdf8d979744b66b81;hb=b563b2d2eafdfe69d25fff3f7b95e4176340d787;hpb=af1825cf01346729dc1fd3d4f0c4deb4157b1946 diff --git a/index.mdwn b/index.mdwn index 026cdf8f..51536cc8 100644 --- a/index.mdwn +++ b/index.mdwn @@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ the Linguistics building at 10 Washington Place, in room 103 (front of the first One student session will be held every Wednesday from XX-YY at WHERE. --> +## [[Index of Content (lecture notes and more)|content]] ## ## Announcements ## @@ -36,11 +37,7 @@ we'll be doing the next week. It would be smart to make a serious start on that week's homework, for instance, before the session. --> -* Here is information about [[How to get the programming languages running on your computer]]. - -* Here are Lecture notes for [[Week1]]; [[Assignment1]]. (*Lecture notes will be posted soon.*) - - > Topics: Basics of Functional Programming +* Here is information about [[How to get the programming languages running on your computer|installing]]. * Henceforth, unless we say otherwise, every homework will be "due" by Wednesday morning after the Thursday seminar in which we refer to it. @@ -74,6 +71,25 @@ what is difficult, what you tried, why what you tried didn't work, and what you think you need in order to solve the problem. + + +(**Week 1**) Thursday 29 Jan 2015 + +> Topics: +[[Order in programming languages and natural language|topics/week1 order]]; +[[Introduction to functional programming|topics/week1]]; +[[Homework|exercises/assignment1]]; +[[Advanced notes|topics/week1 advanced notes]] + + + + + ## Course Overview ## The overarching goal of this seminar is to introduce concepts and techniques from @@ -118,7 +134,7 @@ course is to enable you to make these tools your own; to have enough understanding of them to recognize them in use, use them yourself at least in simple ways, and to be able to read more about them when appropriate. -[[More about the topics and larger themes of the course]] +[[More about the topics and larger themes of the course|overview]] ## Who Can Participate? ## @@ -174,8 +190,10 @@ strictly exclusive. The labels are better thought of as concerning different of the extent to which they emphasize, and are designed around those idioms. Languages like Python and JavaScript are sometimes themselves described as "more functional" than other languages, like C. - -In any case, here is some more context for the three languages we will be focusing on. +In any case, here is + +[[How to get the programming languages running on your computer|installing]]. +And here is some more context for the three languages we will be focusing on: * **Scheme** is one of two or three major dialects of *Lisp*, which is a large family of programming languages. Scheme @@ -187,11 +205,21 @@ the operating system differently. One major implementation is called Racket, and that is what we recommend you use. If you're already using or comfortable with another Scheme implementation, though, there's no compelling reason to switch. - Racket stands to Scheme in something like the relation Firefox stands to HTML. + Another good Scheme implementation is Chicken. For our purposes, this is in some +respects superior to Racket, and in other respects inferior. + + Racket and Chicken stand to Scheme in something like the relation Firefox stands to HTML. - (Wikipedia on [Lisp](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_%28programming_language%29), + (Wikipedia on +[Lisp](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_%28programming_language%29), [Scheme](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_%28programming_language%29), -and [Racket](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racket_%28programming_language%29).) +[Racket](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racket_%28programming_language%29), and +[Chicken](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHICKEN_%28Scheme_implementation%29).) + * **Caml** is one of two major dialects of *ML*, which is another large family of programming languages. Caml has only one active "implementation", @@ -199,13 +227,14 @@ OCaml, developed by the INRIA academic group in France. Sometimes we may refer t more generally; but you can assume that what we're talking about always works more specifically in OCaml. - (Wikipedia on [ML](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ML_%28programming_language%29), -[Caml](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caml), -and [OCaml](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCaml).) + (Wikipedia on +[ML](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ML_%28programming_language%29), +[Caml](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caml), and +[OCaml](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCaml).) + -* Those of you with some programming background may have encountered a third -prominent functional programming language, **Haskell**. This is also used a +* **Haskell** is also used a lot in the academic contexts we'll be working through. Its surface syntax differs from Caml, and there are various important things one can do in each of Haskell and Caml that one can't (or can't as easily) do in the @@ -213,11 +242,16 @@ other. But these languages also have *a lot* in common, and if you're familiar with one of them, it's generally not hard to move between it and the other. - (Wikipedia on [Haskell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskell_%28programming_language%29).) + Like Scheme, Haskell has a couple of different implementations. The +dominant one, and the one we recommend you install, is called GHC, short +for "Glasgow Haskell Compiler". + + (Wikipedia on +[Haskell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskell_%28programming_language%29) and +[GHC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Haskell_Compiler).) + - -[[How to get the programming languages running on your computer]] ## Recommended Books ## @@ -251,6 +285,19 @@ comfortable with OCaml (or with Haskell) than with Scheme might consider working through this book instead of The Little Schemer. For the rest of you, or those of you who *want* practice with Scheme, go with The Little Schemer. +* *The Haskell Road to Logic, Maths and Programming*, by Kees Doets and Jan van Eijck, currently $22 on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0954300696) is a textbook teaching the parts of math and logic we cover in the first few weeks of Logic for Philosophers. (Notions like validity, proof theory for predicate logic, sets, sequences, relations, functions, inductive proofs and recursive definitions, and so on.) The math here should be accessible and familiar to all of you. What is novel about this book is that it integrates the exposition of these notions with a training in (part of) Haskell. It only covers the rudiments of Haskell's type system, and doesn't cover monads; but if you wanted to review this material and become comfortable with core pieces of Haskell in the process, this could be a good read. + + +The rest of these are a bit more advanced, and are also looser suggestions: + +* *Computational Semantics with Functional Programming*, by Jan van Eijck and Christina Unger, currently $42 on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0521757606). We own this but haven't read it yet. It *looks* like it's doing the same kind of thing this seminar aims to do: exploring how natural language meanings can be understood to be "computed". The text uses Haskell, and is aimed at linguists and philosophers as well as computer scientists. Definitely worth a look. + + * Another good book covering the same ground as the Hankin book, but more thoroughly, and in a more mathematical style, is *Lambda-Calculus and Combinators: an Introduction*, by J. Roger Hindley and Jonathan P. Seldin, currently $74 hardback / $65 kindle on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0521898854). @@ -261,7 +308,10 @@ If you choose to read both the Hankin book and this book, you'll notice the auth terminological/notational choices. At first, this makes comprehension slightly slower, but in the long run it's helpful because it makes the arbitrariness of those choices more salient. -* Another good book, covering some of the same ground as the Hankin, and the Hindley & Seldin, but delving deeper into typed lambda calculi, is *Types and Programming Languages*, by Benjamin Pierce, currently $77 hardback / $68 kindle on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0262162091). This book has many examples in OCaml. + +* Another good book, covering a bit of the same ground as the Hankin and the Hindley & Seldin, but focusing especially on typed lambda calculi, is *Types and Programming Languages*, by Benjamin Pierce, currently $77 hardback / $68 kindle on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0262162091). This book has many examples in OCaml. It seems to be the standard textbook for CS students learning type theory. + +* The next two books focus on the formal semantics of typed programming languages, both in the "denotational" form that most closely corresponds to what we mean by semantics, and in the "operational" form very often used in CS. These are: *The Formal Semantics of Programming Languages*, by Glynn Winskel, currently $38 on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0262731037), and *Semantics of Programming Languages*, by Carl Gunter, currently $41 on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0262071436). ----