CS 641 meeting -*- Outline -*-

* Introduction
	write the name of the course on the board.

** Who
	introduce self and meet everyone
	have them write names on board

** the big picture type systems (course spec)

------------------------------------------
          informal          formal

        language design <-> semantics
            ^                  ^
            |                  |
            v                  v
        examples            soundness
       (ease of use)     compositionality
                        (other principles)
------------------------------------------

** focus on types (static type system)
*** Why it's exciting
        active area of research
        a simple kind of specification
        helps programmers by automatically checking for consistency

*** denotational semantics
        for use, functional interpreters
        helps check language design

        Excited about Schmidt's book:
                clarity,
                depth
                use of den sem to explain,
                gets into advanced aspects at end (specifications as types)

*** applications and projects
	BeCecil (multimethod OO language)
        Multimethods to avoid aliasing
        CORBA, COM, OLE, music scripting, game playing, ...

** Plan of course (syllabus)
	overview, motivation and a bit of history
	Schmidt as far as we can go...
		weeks 4-15
	summary and evaluation at the end

	Q: Would you make any changes to the plan?

** Objectives
*** meta
        - get you to think critically
                Q: What kind of questions should you be asking?
                        limitations? utility?
        - teach you some semantics and type theory
*** normal
        - Design (parts of) programming languages
        - Explain and semantics of major features in
                modern programming languages.
        - Explain type systems
                and how they relate to language design and logic. 
        - Read and write formal semantic descriptions
                and type systems, use these to evaluate designs
        - Prove a type system is sound
        - State the goals and problems of programming language semantics

** How I'll run the course

*** overview
	informal and friendly, I'm going to try not to lecture too much
	lecture meetings: get old homework back (you keep it),
				discuss homework, if any (some put on board),
				hand in homework
				discuss next topic
	homework: you'll do a term project, hope to get a paper out of it.
                term project will be some language design,
                        and a Haskell program to go with it.
                You'll read others work to develop critical thinking skills,
                Can work alone or with others.

	grading: based on evidence, participation, project, final oral exam
			I'll give comments on homework, grades if you want them
	pace: we'll try to uncover and explore carefully
			want deep understanding of that material (semantics)
		for homework, we'll be flexible,

*** red tape
	prerequisites (ok to not have 531 this offering, but need 541 or math)
	books: Schmidt on reserve
		these and Dijkstra-Scholten are on reserve
		also note the literature intro.
	newsgroup: isu.coms.641

	Q: everyone have all the handouts?

** summary
	Q: any other questions about the course?