Com S 541 -- Programming Languages I			January 27, 1993

	HOMEWORK 2: Programming Languages and Comp. Sci. Research

Due: February 1, 1993

You have been recommended by the owners of the company to the
faculty search committee of a prominent Midwest University
(called It's Sure a University) to help them evaluate the place
of programming languages in their research program.
Some of the members of the committee think that programming languages
are an arcane subject with little to do with what is important
in computing (i.e., their own area of specialization), while others
think that programming languages are related to all other areas of computing.

Your task is to tell them:

	a) What programming language ideas might be useful to other areas
	   of specialization in computing, if any.
	b) What problems in programming languages might be amenable to attack
	   by the results or techniques in other areas, if any.
	c) What tools or techniques someone who is educated in programming
	   language design and semantics (for example students of a new
	   faculty member in programming languages) would have that would
	   be useful, even if not directly.  (For example, lots of disciplines
	   think calculus is a useful thing for their students to take,
	   even if they don't use calculus directly.)

This is a group project.  Your group is to make a roughly 5 minute
oral presentation. The style of presentation is up to you; you can allow one
person to talk, or several.  The audience for the presentation
is the faculty of the computing department of It's Sure a University.

Part of your presentation should be a diagram of some kind, which you
will be asked to put on the board (or have copies made).
This diagram should summarize your presentation.

Again the focus is on logic and evidence, not unsupported assertions.
You are encouraged to present facts and opinions, if any,
from the literature that support your arguments.
You can argue from your own experience as well.

(If you need transparencies or copies made, let Gary know
far enough in advance to have them made in time for the class.)


			Alternative positions

You may attack the study of programming languages as worthless and
uninteresting.  Use the same standards of evidence and consider
each of the three points addressed in the original question.


			Extra Credit
(If you or your group wishes to pursue this, we can allow you 2 minutes.)

What are the subspecializations within programming languages?
Which have the most connections with other areas of computer science?