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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) two workshop-style study group will meet in TBD Rebecca Galasso and Dmitri Ostapenko are the guru-facilitators

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, usually at the end of the indicated due week, in the box outside Marty's office (CSB 735) by 5pm. The due time and date is given in red in the last column. Thus in 2014 the "Written FLAT for Wk. 2" assignment is due by 5pm on 9.19, which is Friday of "week three".

Some written assignment due dates are close to the exam the assignments cover. The TA team will try its best to get your graded work returned before the exam. Turning in your work a few days early should guarantee timely return.

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
9.02 C, FLAT Intro Textbook , Nice on C pointers!, C notes Intro
C Language
FLAT Intro
BB Practice submission, Prog. C Week 1 none
9.09 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
9.16 CFGs, Parsing Scott CD Matl: (BBoard Crs Mat'ls) , Another Copy Here (PDF) , Scott's Text Reading on BB e-Reserves. CFGs and Parsing Prog. C Wk 3,4 FLAT Wk 3,4 C Wk 2, FLAT Wk 2 (due 5pm 9/19)
9.23 Foundations Mathematical Structures for Computer Science, Gersting Ch 8 pp 558-620, RR e-Reserves (or BB) Language Types none FLAT Wk 3-4 (due 5pm 9.25)

Logic

Week Subject Primary Reading Lecture Notes Ex. Ass't Ex. Due
9.30 FLAT EXAM 9.30 Prolog FLAT EXAM 9.30 Textbook , Scrappy Terse Notes , Prologomena , Probably confusing Cut! oheads, FLAT EXAM 9.30 Prolog , Prolog Alternative Not bad overheads from UK. FLAT EXAM 9.30 Prog Prolog Wk 1 Prog: C Wk 3-4.
10.07 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
10.14 Fall Break and Parsing in Prolog Clocksin and Mellish, Chapter 9 Parsing with DCGs in Prolog Writ Logic Wk 3 Logic Wk 2 (due 5pm 10/17)
10.21 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 4 Prolog Wk 2, Logic Wk 3 (due 5pm 10/24)
10.28 Logic Circuits Foundations of Computer Science , Aho and Ullman Ch. 13 pp 699-732, RR e-Reserves (or BB) Circuits -- Writ Logic Week 4 (due 5pm 10/31)

Functional Programming

Week Subject Primary Reading Lecture Notes Ex. Ass't Ex. Due
11.04 Scheme, LOGIC EXAM 11.6 Racket (Dr. Scheme) /usr/staff/drracket/ Logic Test 11/7 Scheme Prog Scheme Wk 1 --
11.11 Lambda Calculus Lambda Calculus Notes, Brown Ch 1,2 BB course content, or LCText, Ch. 1,2. e-reserve scan of Turing Award Excerpt, Constraints and N-Queens Abstraction and Application, Conditionals, Pairs, Numbers Writ Lambda Wk 1 Prog Scheme Wk 2 Scheme Wk 1 and Prog Prolog Wk 3-4
11.18 Lambda Calculus Lambda Calculus Notes, Brown Ch 3,4 BB course content, or LCText, 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 2 (Chaps 3,4), Solving N-Queens Scheme Wk 2, Lambda Calc Wk 1 (due 5pm 11/19)
11.25 lambda calc cont. or other slack -- Writ Lambda Wk 3.4, Lambda Calc Wk 2 (due 5pm 11/25)

Matrices and Linear Algebra

Week Subject Primary Reading Lecture Notes Ex. Ass't Ex. Due
11.26-11.30 Happy US Thanksgiving. Learn Matlab 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: any of three below, --
12.02 Matrices, Linear Algebra, Gaussian Elimination Project Possibilities , and Matrices CSC 160 , Matrices and Linear Algebra Row (T 3.1). Matrices and linear systems and Pivoting Project N Queens, See BB for Proj due date.
12.04 ODE Workshop ODE reading . For baseball project, 160 programs, Π part 3: Monte Carlo ODE HTML ODE Projects, (Ballistics---cannon- or base-balls). Lambda Calc. written, Week 3,4. (due 5pm 12/5)
12.09 Ray Tracing Workshop Ray Casting and refl. funcs. Raycasting Project Mat'ls Raycasting Project --
12.11 LAMBDA CALC. EXAM -- -- -- --
Finals -- -- -- -- Project Due Before Finals: see BB.
NO FINAL EXAM IN 173!

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Last update: 6/30/11