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Computation and Formal Systems: CSC 173
Perpetually-updated Syllabus and Schedule

Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.

--- Dennis Kimbro.

Any fool can drown; that's the easy bit.

--- Pete Goss, Solo sailor

In 2012 our (optional) workshop-style study group will meet in TBD Chris Fredrickson is the facilitator and guru.

The Reading listed for a day should be done BEFORE that day. You might notice that many of the suggested readings in the syllabus are taken from current or former textbooks for CSC 172, 240, and 254. This is no accident and is meant to give you a leg up for later. These texts may also be good alternative and supplementary texts.

BUT the "suggested reading" in the Syllabus and Schedule may not be sufficient, palatable, or accessible, especially in the programming language segments (first week of a module). They're only suggestions: the main thing is that you understand the material. Another resource is the Alternative or Extra Readings page.

The homework, both written exercises and programming exercises, is organized on a weekly basis and described in detail in the 173 Exercises page. It is (usually) "assigned" at the beginning of a week and due at the end of it, but there are several multi-week assignments.

Except for holidays and other exceptions, written exercises are due in hardcopy by the start of the second (Thursday) 173 class of the indicated due week, in the box outside Marty's office (CSB 735). Thus in 2011 the "Written FLAT for Wk. 2" assignment is due by 5pm on 9.13, which is Thursday of the Week with Tuesday on 9.13.

Programming exercises due in Blackboard on the day and time indicated in Blackboard: dates below are approximate.

Blackboard's "possible points" for an exercise are merely a grading convention. Typically a project-size 2-week programming exercise with significant writeup is worth about 2.5 times a one-weeker.

The syllabus may well be updated as reality intrudes, so be prepared for variations.

Also, we may interrupt the flow every now and then for a midterm exam or three.

Formal Languages and Automata Theory

Week Subject Primary Reading Lecture Notes Ex. Ass't Ex. Due
8.30 C, FLAT Intro Textbook , Nice on C pointers!, C notes Intro
C Language
FLAT Intro
BB Practice submission, Prog. C Week 1 none
9.4 DFAs, NFAs, Scanning Scott, Programming Language Pragmatics, Ch 2 pp 37-94 (e-reserves); Rosen, Discrete Mathematics and its Applications, Ch 12 (e-reserves). FA and RegExps , Scanning Writ. FLAT Wk 2 Prog. C Wk 2 C Week 1
9.11 CFGs, Parsing Blackboard Content FLAT , Scott on Prog. Lang. syntax . CFGs and Parsing Prog. C Wk 3,4 FLAT Wk 3,4 C Wk 2, FLAT Wk 2 (5pm 9/13)
9.18 Foundations Mathematical Structures for Computer Science, Gersting Ch 8 pp 558-620, RR e-Reserves (or BB) Language Types none none

Logic

Week Subject Primary Reading Lecture Notes Ex. Ass't Ex. Due
9.25 Prolog Textbook , Scrappy Terse Notes , Prologomena , Probably confusing Cut! oheads, Prolog , Prolog Alternative Not bad overheads from UK. Prog Prolog Wk 1 Prog: C Wk 3-4, Writ FLAT Wk 3-4 (5pm 9/27)
10.2 Prop Calc. Russell and Norvig, AI Mod. Appr. , Ch. 7, pp 200-220, RR e-Reserves (or BB) PC text , PC oheads Prop. Calculus, Inference in PC. Prog Prolog Wk 2 , Writ Logic Wk 2 Prog Prolog Wk 1
10.9 Fall Break and Parsing in Prolog Clocksin and Mellish, Chapter 9 Parsing with DCGs in Prolog none per se none
10.16 Pred. Calc. Russell and Norvig, AI Mod. Appr. , Ch. 8, pp 240-257 and Ch. 9, pp 272-294, RR e-Reserves (or BB). FOPC text , FOPC oheads FOL , and FOL Inference Prog Prolog Wk 3-4 , Writ Logic Wk 3 Prolog Wk 2, Logic Wk 2 (5pm 10/18)
10.23 Logic Circuits Foundations of Computer Science , Aho and Ullman Ch. 13 pp 699-732, RR e-Reserves (or BB) Circuits Writ Logic Wk 4 Logic Wk 3 (5pm 10/25)

Functional Programming

Week Subject Primary Reading Lecture Notes Ex. Ass't Ex. Due
10.30 Scheme Racket (Dr. Scheme) /usr/staff/drracket/ Scheme Prog Scheme Wk 1 Writ Logic Week 4 (5pm 11/1), Prog Prolog Wk 3-4
11.6 Lambda Calculus Lambda Calculus Notes, Brown Ch 1,2. BB course content. e-reserve scan of Turing Award Excerpt, Constraints and N-Queens Abstraction and Application, Conditionals, Pairs, Numbers Writ Lambda Wk 2 Prog Scheme Wk 2 Scheme Wk 1
11.13 Lambda Calculus Lambda Calculus Notes, Brown Ch 3,4 and Russell and Norvig on Search and CSP (chaps 3 and 5), RR e-reserves or BB, Recursion, Arithmetic and Recursion, Types, Structures, Lists Writ Lambda Wk 3 (Chaps 3,4), Solving N-Queens Scheme Wk 2, Lambda Calc Wk 2 (5pm 11/15)

Matrices and Linear Algebra

NO FINAL EXAM IN 173!
Week Subject Primary Reading Lecture Notes Ex. Ass't Ex. Due
11.20 Matlab and Thanksgiving Stormy Attaway's Book Mathworks Tutorials!, and Mathworks Reference, and , UFL Tutorial and also CSC160 Readings and Lectures, plus X11 Forwarding with SSH. Matlab Choose Matlab Project N Queens
11.27 Matrices and Linear Algebra Project Possibilities , and Matrices Matrices and linear systems -- Project due 12/16; Lambda Calculus Week 3: Chaps 3 and 4 (5 pm 11/29)
11.29 Gaussian Elimination Workshop CSC 160 , Matrices and Linear Algebra Row (T 3.1). Pivoting Project Mat'ls Pivoting Project --
12.1 ODE Workshop ODE reading . For baseball project, 160 programs, Π part 3: Monte Carlo ODE HTML ODE Projects, (Ballistics---canon- or base-balls). --
12.4 Ray Tracing Workshop Ray Casting and refl. funcs. Raycasting Project Mat'ls Raycasting Project -- --
12.11 -- -- -- -- --
12.16 -- -- -- -- Project Due
NO FINAL EXAM IN 173!

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Last update: 6/30/11