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, Single-handed sailor

The Reading listed for a day should be done BEFORE that day. Note that "primary reading" may not be sufficient, palatable, or accessible, especially in the programming language segments (first week of a module). Please see the Distributed Textbook page. You might notice that many primary readings are taken from current or former textbooks for CSC 172, 240, and 254. This is no accident and is meant to be efficient. Note that these texts may also be good alternative and supplementary texts.

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.

Written exercises are due in hardcopy by the start of the first 173 class of the following week, either in class or in the box outside TA's office.

Programming exercises due in Blackboard on the day and time indicated in Blackboard: dates below are approximate. There's a 3-day "late" period on programming assignments, which are usually due on Sundays, so the Tuesday date is appropriate as a "drop dead" deadline.

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 two.

Formal Languages and Automata Theory

Week Subject Primary Reading Lecture Notes Ex. Ass't Ex. Due
T 9.2 C Textbook , C notes C pointers mostly , CB Oheads, Oheads from C notes BB Practice submission, C Week 1 none
T 9.9 Scanning and Parsing Scott, Programming Language Pragmatics, Ch 2 pp 37-94 (e-reserves); Rosen, Discrete Mathematics and its Applications, Ch 12 (e-reserves). FA text , FA oheads , scanning C Print Structure C Week 1
T 9.16 S&P and Foundations Blackboard Content FLAT grammars text , grammars oheads , more on CFG , C Scan, Parse, Eval C Print Structure
T 9.23 Foundations Mathematical Structures for Computer Science, Gersting Ch 8 pp 558-620, RR e-Reserves (or BB) Type 0,1,2,3 Languages , none none

Logic

Week Subject Primary Reading Lecture Notes Ex. Ass't Ex. Due
T 9.30 Prolog Textbook Lec. Notes 1 , LN 2, class egs 1 , class egs 2 , Parsing BB: Prolog Wk 1 None
T 10.7 Prop Calc. Russell and Norvig, AI Mod. Appr. , Ch. 7, pp 200-220, RR e-Reserves (or BB) AIMA home page, PC text , PC oheads BB: Prolog Wk. 2, Logic Wk 2 Prolog Wk 1
T 10.14 Pred. Calc. Russell and Norvig, AI Mod. Appr. , Ch. 8, pp 240-257 and Ch. 9, pp 272-294, RR e-Reserves (or BB). Clocksin and Mellish, Programming in Prolog, Ch. 9 (e-reserves or suggested text). AIMA home page, FOPC text , FOPC oheads BB: Prolog Parsing and Evaluation, Logic Wk 3 Prolog Wk 2, Logic Wk 2
T 10.21 Logic Circuits Foundations of Computer Science , Aho and Ullman Ch. 13 pp 699-732, RR e-Reserves (or BB) CB Oheads , Logic Wk 4 Logic Wk 3

Functional Programming

Week Subject Primary Reading Lecture Notes Ex. Ass't Ex. Due
T 10.28 Scheme DrScheme Docs, Tutorials... /usr/staff/drscheme/ Scheme.pdf Scheme Wk 1 All Module 2 Assts!
T 11.4 Lambda Calculus Lambda Calculus Notes, Brown Ch 1,2. RR e-reserves or BB l1.pdf, l2.pdf Scheme Wk 2, Lambda Calc Wk 2 Scheme Wk 1
T 11.11 Lambda Calculus Lambda Calculus Notes, Brown Ch 3,4. RR e-reserves or BB l3.pdf, l4.pdf Scheme Puzzle and Search, Lambda Calc Wk 3 Scheme Wk 2, Lambda Calc Wk 2
T 11.18 Lambda Calculus Lambda Calculus Notes, Brown Ch 5-8. RR e-reserves or BB none Lambda Calc Wk 4 Lambda Calc Wk 3

Matrices and Linear Algebra

Week Subject Primary Reading Lecture Notes Ex. Ass't Ex. Due'
T 11.25 Matlab Textbook none Raytracer Program All Module 3 Assts!
T 12.9 Camera Models Coordinate Transformations (McKerrow) and Camera Modelling (Forsyth and Ponce), RR e-reserves or BB none none Exercises due 11 Dec. 3pm., Raytracer Due 12 Dec. 11:55pm

There's No Final Exam in 2008!

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This page is maintained by Deer Boy

Last update: 7/12/07