Homework 1

  1. Subscribe to the class email list. List any programming languages you've used in the notes section.
  2. Chapter 1, problem 12: Write your answer based on what you know coming in to this class. We'll revisit the question at the end of the semester to see how your answer changes.
  3. Explore the course web pages. You should know where to find the assignments for the course, the viewgraphs shown in class and the examples shown in class. You will also need to find the programs needed for the next program.
  4. Find the directory that has example programs for all the languages that are available on onyx. (You should be able to find this directory by following links from the class home page. The url converts to a path on onyx by inserting public_html/ between ~tcole/ and cs354. The path is actually shown as the text of the link.) Choose two languages other than Java and run the program that is provided. Then modify the program to print a different message. Write down the command(s) you use to run a program in each language. Copy your modified program and its output into the document you submit for this assignment.

    Hint: For languages that need to be compiled and those for which you need to run an interpreter, a shell script (an executable file) called MAKE is provided which has all the commands that are needed to compile and run the program. For Scripting languages, the program itself is executable and contains the name of the command used to run it. Neither the program name nor make is a valid answer to this question.

  5. Browse through chapter 2 of the text. What languages sound most interesting to you? Which one is the most different from the languages you already know how to use? Which one(s) might you like to learn more about?
  6. Extra Credit Look for an article describing the development of some language by one of the people who wrote it. The bibliographic notes from Chapter 2 provide some starting points. Try doing a web search on one of the subjects of the interviews in the text. Send an email to the class mailing list summarizing the article you found. Be sure to include the citation or URL in case anyone else wants to look at the original.

This assignment can be turned in

Acceptable formats for electronically submitted assignments are text, OpenOffice or MicrosoftWord. I should be able to open your assignment with OpenOffice. Unless otherwise specified in the assignment, the entire assignment should be in a single document. The name of your document should be hw1 with an appropriate extension.