Do Languages Matter? Lecture 1: Overview. Why Article. Do Languages Matter? Why choose C vs C++ vs Java vs Python...!

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1 Do Languages Matter? Why choose C vs C++ vs Java vs Python... Lecture 1: Overview CSC 131 Fall, 2014 Kim Bruce What criteria to decide? Scenarios: - ios app - Android App - Web App - Mac App - Windows app - System software - Scientific App - Scripting Do Languages Matter? Why Article Impact on programming practice SIGPLAN Education Board documents Learn widely-applicable design & implementation techniques Creating new domain specific languages or virtual machines Learning new computational models and speeding language learning Choosing the right language

2 Provide Abstractions PL s & Software Development Data Abstractions: - Basic data types: ints, reals, bools, chars, pointers - Structured: arrays, structs (records), objects - Units: Support for ADT s, modules, packages Control Abstractions: - Basic: assignment, goto, sequencing - Structured: if...then...else, loops, functions - Parallel: concurrent tasks, threads, message-passing Development process: - requirements - specification - implementation - certification or validation - maintenance Evaluate languages based on goals Goals of Some older PL s PL Choice Languages & their goals: - BASIC - quick development of interactive programs - Pascal - instruction - C - low-level systems programming - FORTRAN, Matlab - number-crunching scientific What about large-scale programs? - Ada, Modula-2, object-oriented languages Languages designed to support specific software methodologies. Language affect way people think about programming process. Hard for people to change languages if requires different way of thinking about process.

3 Paradigms or whatever you want to call them History of PL s Not crisp boundaries - Procedural - Functional - Logic or Constraint-programming - Object-oriented Machine language Assembly language High-level language Single highly-trained programmer Teams of programmers History of PLs Course Goals ve C Scheme Objective C Self Javascript Newer: Scala, Dart, Rust, NewSpeak, Swift, Grace, Pyret Upon completion of course should be able to: - Quickly learn programming languages, & how to apply them to effectively solve programming problems. - Rigorously specify, analyze, & reason about the behavior of a software system using a formally defined model of the system s behavior. - Realize a precisely specified model by correctly implementing it as a program, set of program components, or a programming language.

4 Administrivia Administrivia Web page at - Text by Mitchell: being revised now If needed, get account at - account_request.php - Do it early Recommended: - CS 81, Computability and Logic For computability and parsing Homework - Generally due every week on Thursday night. Posted on Friday - All homework must be turned in electronically Prefer Tex ed, but can scan in if want to write up by hand... but must be legible On-Line Discussions Grace Will be on Piazza You will receive an invitation later this week. - Do not throw it away You can ask and answer questions on-line. - TA s and I will monitor and respond. New language designed for teaching novices - Under development at Pomona, Portland State, and Victoria University, Wellington, NZ - Several published papers, nearly complete implementations Goal: Integrate current ideas in programming languages into a simple, general-purpose language aimed at novices.

5 Why New Language for Novices? Existing Languages Woefully Out-of-date Most popular languages too complex & lowlevel. Complexity necessary for professionals, but... - Accidental complexity of language can overwhelm essential complexity. - Minimize language complexity so can focus on programming/design complexity. C (1972), C++ (1983), Python (1989), Java (1994) History of pedagogical languages: - Basic, Logo, Pascal -... but not recently# - Miniworlds different: Alice, Karel the Robot, Greenfoot Java Problems public static void main(string [] args) Primitives versus objects, == versus equals Flawed implementation of generics Static versus instance on variables & methods float versus double versus int versus long 19 >>> class aclass: """A simple example class""" val = 47 def f(self): return 'hello world' >>> x = aclass() >>> x.value = 17 >>> x.val 47 >>> x.f() 'hello world' Python Problems 20 disappearing self? uncaught typos no information hiding Fine for scripting, but not large-scale software development

6 What if we could have: Hello World in Grace: Low syntactic overhead of Python, but with information hiding consistent method declaration & use required variable declarations optional (& gradual) type-checking direct definition of objects first-class functions print "hello world" Objects def mysquare = object { var side := 10 Consistent method area { indenting is side * side required# But no method stretchby(n) { semicolons. side := side + n Defaults: #instance variables and constants are confidential (protected), methods are public# Annotations can override the defaults 23 Objects contain declarations definitions: - def x:number = 17 variables: - var y: String := hello methods: - method m(w:number,z:string) -> Done {... types: - type Point = {x -> Number y -> Number... Types are optional

7 Typed Objects type Square = { area -> Number stretchby(n:number) -> Done like Void def mysquare:square = object { var side:number := 10 method area -> Number { side * side method stretchby(n:number) -> Done { side := side + n 25 Classes Classes take parameters and generate objects class square.withside(s:number) -> Square { var side:number := s method area -> Number { side * side method stretchby(n:number) -> Done { side := side + n print "Created square with side {s" Type annotations can be omitted or included 26 Or Object w/factory Method def square = object { method withside(s:number) -> Square { object{ var side:number := s method area -> Number { side * side method stretchby(n:number)-> Done { side := side + n print "Created square with side {side" 27 What is type of square? Blocks Syntax for anonymous functions def double = {n -> n * n double.apply(7) // returns 49# // block is implicitly object w/apply method def nums = alist.from(1)to(100) def squares = nums.map {n -> n * n Blocks can take 0 or more parameters 28 function multipart method names

8 Blocks block, evaluated repeatedly Blocks make it simple to define new control structures as methods while {boolexp do { somestuff squares.foreach {n -> if (n.iseven) then {print n boolean expression, evaluated once Parentheses can be dropped if argument bounded by { or # No parens needed for parameterless methods Running Grace Compilers generating C or Javascript Use web-based editor/compiler at minigrace 29 Grace on the Web Go to: Click on New at top to start new program (& choose name) or click on Upload Build button under edit window will compile code. When changes to Run press to execute Error messages not great yet. Right-click (& Save link as ) to save. Avoid Hoare s Billion Dollar Mistake No built-in null Accessing uninitialized variable is error Replace null by: sentinel objects, or error actions 32

9 Sentinel Objects A real object, tailored for the situation, e.g.: def emptylist = object { method asstring {"<emptylist>" method do(action) { method map(function) {self method size {0 name for object # being defined Sentinel Objects Simplifies code, eliminates testing for null class alist.cons(value, taillist) { method asstring {"({head:{tail)" method head {value boolean method tail {taillist expression, no conditional evaluated code method do(action) { once action.apply(head) tail.do(action) method map(function) { alist.cons(function.apply(head), tail.map(function)) method size {1 + tail.size Error Actions Grace encourages the use of blocks to specify error actions or default values: var x := table.at(key)ifabsent{ return unknown(key) Pattern Matching Provides type-safe switch/case match(myval) case{ n: Number -> "The number {n seen" case{ s: String -> "The string "++s++" seen" case{ true: Boolean -> "This is true" 35 36

10 Variant Types def absent = object {... type OptionNumber = Number singleton(absent) var x: OptionNumber := table.lookup(key) match(x) case {x':number ->... x'... case {_ -> return unknown(key) Questions? val: A B iff val:a or val:b Allows elimination of null 37

Why a New Language? Seeking Grace: a New Object-Oriented Language for Novices. OO Teaching Frustrations. Java Problems. Java is 20 years old in 2015

Why a New Language? Seeking Grace: a New Object-Oriented Language for Novices. OO Teaching Frustrations. Java Problems. Java is 20 years old in 2015 Seeking Grace: a New Object-Oriented Language for Novices Andrew Black, Kim Bruce, Michael Homer, James Noble, Amy Ruskin, & Richard Yannow Why a New Language? Java is 20 years old in 2015 Showing its