eecs 762: programming languages foundations i
fall 2018

essentials | announcements | homework | schedule

essentials

Instructor J. Garrett Morris
Email garrettm@ku.edu
Office Eaton 2028
Office hours MWF 10—11 PM, and by appointment
Course website https://ittc.ku.edu/~garrett/eecs762f18/
Lectures MWF 9:00—9:50 AM, Learned Hall 1136
Textbook Aaron Stump, Programming Language Foundations

syllabus

This course is an introduction to modern approaches to the semantics of programming languages. The course will introduce denotational, axiomatic, and operational approaches to defining the semantics of simple programming languages. It will also introduce the mathematical techniques necessary for using these approaches, including the study of domains and continuous functions and of proof systems and logics. Finally, we will discuss the λ-calculus, a simple model of computation that underlies modern functional programming languages, and its connections to logic and proof theory.

The syllabus is available here. The syllabus spells out the details of grading, expectations, and so forth.

announcements

11/12 Homework 6 is released. This is the final homework of the semester. It will be worth 1.5x the other homework assignments in determining your homework grade.
9/5 The due date for homework 2 has been extended to September 10.
8/24 The due date for homework 1 has been extended to September 4. This does not mean the next homework will be delayed; it will still be assigned on August 27
8/20 Welcome to EECS 762! Homework 1, including TeX sources, is posted.

homework

Homework and solutions are no longer available.

Number Due date Assignment Sample solutions
1 Tuesday, September 4, 9:00 AM [pdf] [tex] [pdf] [tex]
2 Monday, September 10, 9:00 AM [pdf] [tex] [pdf] [tex]
3 Monday, September 24, 9:00 AM [pdf] [tex] [pdf] [tex]
4 Monday, October 29, 9:00 AM [pdf] [tex] [pdf] [tex]
5 Monday, November 12, 9:00 AM [pdf] [tex] [pdf] [tex]
6 Wednesday, December 5, 9:00 AM [pdf] [tex] [pdf] [tex]

schedule

date topics reading notes
8/20 Introductions
Course objectives
Mathematical preliminaries
"Mathematical background" appendix Homework 1 out
8/22 $FO(\mathbb Z)$ syntax and informal semantics 1.1–1.5
8/24 $FO(\mathbb Z)$ formal semantics
Validity and satisfiability
1.6–1.9
8/27 $FO(\mathbb Z)$ formal semantics
Induction (weak and strong)
1.10 Homework 2 out
8/29 Induction (strong and structural) 1.10–1.11
8/31 Induction (structural) The while language 1.11, 2.1–2.3
9/5 Partial orders, bounds, lattices 2.4.1–2.4.3
9/7 Lattices and complete partial ordres, ω-chains, continuous functions 2.4.3–2.5
9/10 Continuous functions; least fixed point theorem 2.5–2.6 Homework 3 out
9/12 Lifted domains; semantics of while 2.7
9/17 Partial correctness assertions 3.1-3.3
9/19 Rules and derivations 3.4
9/21,10/1 Rules of Hoare logic 3.4-3.5
10/3 Soundness of Hoare logic 3.6
10/5 Relative completeness of Hoare logic 3.6.1
10/12,10/17 Big-step and small-step operational semantics 4.1-4.2
10/19 Equivalence of big-step and small-step semantics 4.3 Homework 4 out
10/22 Equivalence of big-step and small-step operational semantics 4.3
10/24 λ-calculus syntax and semantics 5.1–5.2
10/26 Capture-avoiding substitution
β-reduction
5.1–5.2
10/29 β-reduction
Non-termination
Reduction order and contexts
5.2 Homework 5 out
10/31 Reduction order
Contexts
11/2 Big-step semantics for λ-calculus 5.6
11/5 λ-encodings: Booleans, pairs, sums 6.1
11/7 Church-encodings: naturals, iteration 6.1
11/9 Church-encodings: lists, iteration
11/12 Scott-encodings: naturals, fixed points 6.2 Homework 6 out.
11/14 Scott-encodings: lists, fixed points