This course is an introduction to the basic concepts of programming languages, with a strong emphasis on functional programming. The course uses the languages ML, Racket, and Ruby as vehicles for teaching the concepts, but the real intent is to teach enough about how any language “fits together” to make you more effective programming in any language -- and in learning new ones. This course is neither particularly theoretical nor just about programming specifics -- it will give you a framework for understanding how to use language constructs effectively and how to design correct and elegant programs. By using different languages, you will learn to think more deeply than in terms of the particular syntax of one language. The emphasis on functional programming is essential for learning how to write robust, reusable, composable, and elegant programs. Indeed, many of the most important ideas in modern languages have their roots in functional programming. Get ready to learn a fresh and beautiful way to look at software and how to have fun building it. The course assumes some prior experience with programming, as described in more detail in the first module. The course is divided into three Coursera courses: Part A, Part B, and Part C. As explained in more detail in the first module of Part A, the overall course is a substantial amount of challenging material, so the three-part format provides two intermediate milestones and opportunities for a pause before continuing. The three parts are designed to be completed in order and set up to motivate you to continue through to the end of Part C. The three parts are not quite equal in length: Part A is almost as substantial as Part B and Part C combined.
Optional: Who I Am / Acknowledgments
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来自 University of Washington 的课程
程序设计语言
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从本节课中
Introduction and Course-Wide Information (Start Here)
Welcome! Start here! Learn about this course and how it's organized.
与讲师见面
Dan GrossmanProfessor
Computer Science & Engineering
[MUSIC]
In this optional video, I want to do two things.
I want to give you a little background on who I am,
just in case you're curious since we'll be spending a lot of time together.
And, second,
I want to acknowledge all the people you don't see in front of the camera that have
been absolutely essential in making this course what it is.
So in terms of me,
here's a picture of the United States where I have lived all of my life.
I grew up right in the middle in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri.
When I was 18,
I went off to college as an undergraduate at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
I last lived in Texas in 1997, I miss the burritos.
I then went to grad school in upstate New York at Cornell University.
For those of you not familiar with Northeast United States geography,
when you hear New York, you tend to think New York City.
I was about a 4.5-hour drive from New York City, it's a rather large state.
And then in 2003, I moved to the University of Washington all the way on
the West Coast where I've been a faculty member in the Department of
Computer Science and Engineering ever since.
It's my favorite place to live.
It's my favorite place to work and I'm very, very happy here.
A little bit about my research when I'm not teaching courses, an online courses.
I am a member of the programming languages research community and I believe deeply in
the fundamental elegance of the formal side of programming languages.
Things like functional languages, type systems, proofs about programs.
And in general, formal semantics.
And in particular, operational semantics, but I've been rather applied
within that context in using that sort of foundation for messy real world computing
problems such as how to write systems programs in languages like C.
How to solve the difficulties of concurrent programming,
which became much more important when we got to multicore processors.
More recently,
even dealing with ways to try to continue to improve computing's performance in
an age where our hardware is fundamentally limited by issues of power and energy.
So, I've always found this to be a really enjoyable fulfilling strategy to
collaborate with others on important problems from a perspective of sort of
foundational concepts and programming languages.
Theory.
In recent years, I've also become more focused on computer science education.
This MOOC is certainly a part of that, but more generally,
computer science curriculum issues overall is something I'm very passionate about.
I don't spend all my time on computer science,
I used to do a bunch of things like go hiking in Montana.
I did that I think in the summer of 2012.
Play ice hockey once a week.
You can't tell that that guy in front with the helmet and the stick is me, but
I enjoy skating around when I get the opportunity.
I like to go on long bike rides, this is me finishing up a 320 kilometer
bike ride here in the Pacific Northwest and I even live with a dog.
This is Red dog, she's awesome.
And as you finish each homework, she will visit you and give you a message.
I've also traveled a fair amount, although I would love to do more.
Here's a list of the countries I've visited.
For fun, I've put them in order from smallest to largest.
I think there are about 25 of them and I've traveled a lot around my own country
of the 50 states in the US, I've definitely not been to Alaska.
And I'm not sure if when I was a kid, I made it to Delaware or not.
I've certainly been everywhere else, but a lot has changed for
me in the last couple years.
In fact, since I first recorded most of the material for this MOOC.
I had my first child, a wonderful baby boy in December 2013 and
a second wonderful baby boy in September 2015.
So, I have no idea how I would have ever created an online course after I had kids.
So, I'm glad I did most of it before.
I have no idea how I'm able to survive on as little sleep as I do these days, but
having kids is the most wonderful thing and
it's a huge part of my life that you won't see in the course, but
I wanted to show you a little bit about me and that's a huge part of how I am today.
Let me switch to the other topic of the video,
which is acknowledging all the people you don't see in front of the camera.
It's been an amazing journey with tons of
help to make this course everything that it is.
Way back in the summer of 2012, we gathered a collection of students, Cody,
Rachel, Sean, Claire, Eric and Max back when MOOCs were just starting.
There had only been a few and we really had no idea what we were doing, but
we put it together.
These folks figured a lot of things out for the first time and that always be
a particular special experience that they will be able to be a part of.
As the course continued and evolved, there were a later set of TAs that made things
better, that fixed a lot of things, that were the important second crew.
And then more recently, as we migrated to a platform that let people take
the course more often on a more regular schedule.
There was another set of people that really had to redo a lot of
the autograding infrastructure and I appreciate that.
All through the course,
there's been volunteers who've served as community teaching assistants.
Community mentors that have provided a lot of
feedback where explanations were unclear.
A lot of extra practice problems and an amazing commitment to discussion forums.
There will be more in the future.
But at the time of recording in this video,
these are the names I have to share with you.
Folks who helped set up the recording studio that I'm using to share this
information with you.
People at Coursera over almost four years now who have always been responsive to
questions, given excellent feedback.
This course certainly wouldn't exist without them.
And then some extra special people who maybe were not as directly involved in
the course, but a set of friends and colleagues that when I really needed
something I wasn't quite able to do myself provided special scripts and
easier installation instructions and helped out in crucial times.
There's a set of people that have been deeply involved in the course that I teach
here on campus that is most similar to this online course,
then had made them it material better that have contributed things over the years.
And this course is certainly better, because of all the work they did.
And then of course, thousands of students who participated in the course down type
asked given feedbacks, said what work to ours, said what work to ask well.
And in the end,
it's an amazing team effort involving an enormous number of people.
And while it's always my head in the corner of the screen and
my voice coming out of your speakers, I did want to be clear here at the beginning
of the course just how much I appreciate the massive effort that's gone on by a lot
of people in order to make this course everything that it is.
