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This course focuses on the concepts of programming language theories and their implementations. The course also covers program semantics and program verification, which are powerful tools for guaranteeing the quality of software, for example, proving the correctness of program transformations and that a program is free of certain types of errors.
Programming languages are well accepted as one of the core subjects that every computer scientist should master. The existence of thousands of high-level programming languages reflects the variety of people’s understanding about computation over time, as well as how programming language design demonstrates fitness for special purposes, such as the distinctive requirements from systems programming, software design and web development.COSC369 introduces the important concepts fundamental for programming languages theories and their implementations. These concepts should also be useful for software engineers who are everyday users of various programming languages to gain a deeper understanding of the tools they use and the artifacts they create. The course also covers program semantics and program verification, which are powerful tools for guaranteeing quality of software, e.g., correctness of program transformations and free of certain types of bugs.
1. Analyse (and self-reflect on) the history of programming languages and its relationship to today's computer science and software engineering practices;2. Compare and contrast various programming paradigms of declarative languages, imperative languages, object-oriented languages, and understand the distinction between them;3. Write code in a functional programming language at intermediate level of difficulty;4. Apply static semantics in program analysis, using concepts such as scope and binding rules, type systems, and type inference in related analyses;5. Apply dynamic semantics and program verification techniques for showing the validity of program properties.
COSC261 and SENG201
Students must attend one activity from each section.
Time Commitment: 150 hours24hr Lecture (2hr/week – 12 weeks)24hr Laboratory (working on quizzes)102hr Self-directed learning (reading notes, books, and writing essay)
Chenyi Zhang
Benjamin C. Pierce; Types And Programming Language Hardcover ; The MIT Press, 2002 (An electronic copy of this text is available at: https://libcat.canterbury.ac.nz/Record/2657885).
John C. Mitchell; Concepts in Programming Languages ; Cambridge University Press, 2003 (The (UC) library has one copy of this book; an ebook with unlimited use and DRM free is also available at the (UC) library).
Michael L. Scott; Programming Language Pragmatics ; 4th Edition; Morgan Kaufmann (Elsevier), 2016.
The Computer Science department's grading policy states that in order to pass a course you must meet two requirements:1. You must achieve an average grade of at least 50% over all assessment items.2. You must achieve an average mark of at least 45% on invigilated assessment items.If you satisfy both these criteria, your grade will be determined by the following University-wide scale for converting marks to grades: an average mark of 50% is sufficient for a C- grade, an average mark of 55% earns a C grade, 60% earns a C+ grade and so forth. However if you do not satisfy both the passing criteria you will be given either a D or E grade depending on marks. Marks are sometimes scaled to achieve consistency between courses from year to year.Students may apply for special consideration if their performance in an assessment is affected by extenuating circumstances beyond their control.Applications for special consideration should be submitted via the Special Considerations website within five days of the assessment.Where an extension may be granted for an assessment, this will be decided by direct application to the Department and an application to the Examinations Office may not be required. Special consideration is not available for items worth less than 10% of the course.Students prevented by extenuating circumstances from completing the course after the final date for withdrawing, may apply for special consideration for late discontinuation of the course. Applications must be submitted to the Examinations Office within five days of the end of the main examination period for the semester.
Please click HERE for the CSSE Department's policy for the academic remedy of applications for a special consideration for final exams.
Domestic fee $998.00
International fee $5,188.00
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
For further information see Computer Science and Software Engineering .