Programming Languages
COP 4020
Syllabus — Fall 2025

Instructor: Randolph Langley

    Office: 410C Love Building
    Telephone: 645-1225

Class time and place:

COP4020 meets on Tuesday and Thursday at 1:20 in MCH 201.

Office hours:

Office hours are held in my office, 410C Love. My office hours on Monday are from noon until 1:00pm. My office hours on Wednesday are from 11:00am until 12:30pm.

If these are not convenient, or if you would like to meet using alternative means, then please contact me so that we can schedule a meeting in a different venue or format.

http://www.cs.fsu.edu/~langley/COP4020/2025-Fall/index.html

Description:

This course covers the principles of programming languages, including language constructs, syntactic and semantic specification methods, runtime structures, implementation techniques, and alternative programming paradigms. The course involves programming assignments in a variety of languages and individual investigations.

Prerequisites and Corequisites

Required prerequisite/corequisite: COP4530

Class structure

Canvas: The Canvas class modules are organized by week; new modules are published on Monday, and most activities for most modules occur in that week.

Aims

• Develop an understanding of what programming languages are and an appreciation of their historical context;
• Explore the various possibilities for expressivity in programming languages, including imperative, functional, and logical techniques;
• Learn fundamentals from the classical body of computer science results in parsing;
• Understand fundamental paradigms that have been used in various languages, including control structures, scope, and parameter passing;
• Learn how to create and implement a programming language from the ground up.

Text

Programming Language Pragmatics, Fifth Edition, by Michael Scott and Jonathan Aldrich. This is a new edition, and it is quite different than previous editions, so please make sure you have the 5th edition. Previous editions did not have a co-author; only the 5th edition does.

Assessment

Grades

Class Policies

Assignments

Please turn in assignments on time via Canvas. No late submissions will be accepted.

Academic Dishonesty

Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Do not turn in other people's work as your own; this includes, but is not limited to, unattributed copying from web pages, other students' work, books, journals, or broadcast media. Do not post on Internet websites soliciting help on your assignments or projects; if such solicitations are found, these will be regarded as attempts at academic dishonesty.

Collaboration

This class does not have any joint assignments. You are expected to do all assigned coursework on your own, and you may not consult with your classmates about your work on assignments.

The Florida State University academic honor policy is at http://fda.fsu.edu/Academic-Resources/Academic-Honor-Policy

From the above academic honor policy:

ACADEMIC HONOR POLICY:
		  
The Florida State University Academic Honor Policy outlines the
University's expectations for the integrity of students'
academic work, the procedures for resolving alleged violations of
those expectations, and the rights and responsibilities of
students and faculty members throughout the process.  Students are
responsible for reading the Academic Honor Policy and for living
up to their pledge to "... be honest and truthful and
... [to] strive for personal and institutional integrity at
Florida State University."
	  

Attendance

You are expected to attend class. Materials presented in class may not be available in any other form.

Absence

Excused absences include documented illness, deaths in the immediate family and other documented crises, call to active military duty or jury duty, religious holy days, and official University activities. Accommodations for these excused absences will be made and in such a way that does not penalize students who have a valid excuse. Consideration will also be given to students whose dependent children experience serious illness.

Communication

You should check your email frequently for information about this course, as well as the class home page. You are also encouraged to use email to ask questions and report problems.

If you are experiencing difficulties

If you are experiencing difficulty, either with the class or for reasons outside of the class, or are concerned about your progress, please speak with me immediately.

Except for changes that substantially affect implementation of the grading statement, this syllabus is a guide for the course and is subject to change. In particular, the above schedule and procedures in this class are subject to change in the event of university schedule changes, calendar errors on my part, exigent circumstances, or if other reasons develop during the semester.