CS 320 - Programming Languages

5 CR

This course is an introduction to the design and implementation of programming languages. The course explores organization and structure of programming languages, run?time behavior and requirements of programs, and programming language specification. The course teaches the programming models underlying different programming paradigms such as functional, logic, scripting and object-oriented languages.

Prerequisite(s): CS 300 with a C or better and admission to BC CS program, or instructor’s permission.

Course Outcomes

Distinguish various programming language paradigms
Choose a suitable programming paradigm and language for a given problem or domain
Use formal grammars to specify the syntax of languages
Give a formal semantics for a small language
Construct new data types, abstractions, encapsulations in various languages
Apply the program paradigms to simple problems
Explain design concepts, design alternatives and trade-offs, and implementation considerations for scope, binding, data types, expressions, control structures, subprograms, abstract data types, objects, concurrency structures, and exception handling in modern programming languages
Explain how programming language implementations typically organize memory into global data, text, heap, and stack sections and how recursion and memory management map to this memory model

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