THOMPSON

Computation
INTRODUCTION TO FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMING

Introductory course

SIMON THOMPSON

Computing Laboratory, University of Kent

Second week
S.J.Thompson@ukc.ac.uk

Course description

This course will give students an introduction to modern functional methods, as exemplified by the programming language Haskell. I would anticipate the course having two kinds of outcome.

First it should provide an appreciation of the principles of such languages, including higher-order functions, polymorphism, overloading by means of type classes, lazy and strict evaluation and so forth. These are of value both in themselves and also in the perspective they cast on features of more familiar languages, such as C, C++, Modula or Java.

Secondly, the course should provide relevant practical experience of using a particular language, since it is only by using a language that one gets a true appreciation of how it is used, and particularly of its idioms.

To this end I would expect to use the 90 minute sessions to cover principles, but also to provide students with self study materials which they could pursue between sessions.

Prerequisites
None

Literature
I would expect the course to be of a similar level to my book on Haskell: http://www.ukc.ac.uk/computer_science/Haskell_craft/

HOME PROGRAMME CONTACT REGISTRATION

Computation	INTRODUCTION TO FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMING
Introductory course	SIMON THOMPSON Computing Laboratory, University of Kent
Second week	S.J.Thompson@ukc.ac.uk
Course description	This course will give students an introduction to modern functional methods, as exemplified by the programming language Haskell. I would anticipate the course having two kinds of outcome. First it should provide an appreciation of the principles of such languages, including higher-order functions, polymorphism, overloading by means of type classes, lazy and strict evaluation and so forth. These are of value both in themselves and also in the perspective they cast on features of more familiar languages, such as C, C++, Modula or Java. Secondly, the course should provide relevant practical experience of using a particular language, since it is only by using a language that one gets a true appreciation of how it is used, and particularly of its idioms. To this end I would expect to use the 90 minute sessions to cover principles, but also to provide students with self study materials which they could pursue between sessions.
Prerequisites	None
Literature	I would expect the course to be of a similar level to my book on Haskell: http://www.ukc.ac.uk/computer_science/Haskell_craft/