PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
CMSC 308 FALL 2008
Instructor: Dr. R. P. Webber
Office location and hours: Ruffner 332. MF 2:00 – 3:30, T 1:30 - 3, and by
appointment or coincidence.
Telephone and email: 395-2192; webberrp@longwood.edu
Course description: Topics include language and definition structure, data types and
structures, control structures and data flow, run-time characteristics and lexical analysis,
and parsing. Programming assignments will involved the use of several different
languages. Prerequisite: CMSC 162.
Text: Sebesta, Concepts of Programming Languages, Eighth edition. Addison Wesley,
2008.
Course objectives:
Be able to compare and contrast the major programming paradigms.
Construct a parse tree for a statement in a given grammar.
Understand the basic concepts in data types, as demonstrated by the ability to
explain binding, type checking, scope, primitive data types, user defined data
types, and data abstraction.
Understand the basic concepts in control, as demonstrated by the ability to explain
control structure and subprograms.
Be able to write and execute programs in at least two nonimperative programming
languages.
Tentative class schedule:
Week 1 Aug 25 - 29 Ch.1 – 3: Introduction; history; syntax vs. semantics
Week 2 Sep 3 - 5 Ch. 3: Grammars
Week 3 Sep 8 – 12 Ch. 3: Parsing
Week 4 Sep 15 – 19 Ch. 3, 5: Primitive data types
Week 5 Sep 22 – 26 Ch 5: Binding; scope
