News
090520. In xx contrast to previous exams the next one will not contain problems on the topics of Chapter 6 in Nielson (Axiomatic semantics and preconditions). On the other hand, it may contain a problem on Natural deduction (see the lecture notes).
090427. The pseudo code for the unification algorithm in the lecture notes for lecture F9 has been clarified.
090325.
In my first lecture this week I complained about Java allowing the value
null.
Now I know whom to blame.
090324. Due to the interest in doing the programming assignments I have decided to change the planned order for the lectures.
090313. This year there will be an option to do a number of voluntary programming assignments and get a special exam
090227. The first lecture will be on March 17th, 2009, at 10.15 in E:3308. If you cannot attend you should inform the teacher by e-mail in advance.
081121. Enquiries about the course should be directed to Lennart.Andersson@cs (you have to add ".lth.se" to the address).
Literature and tools
- Hanne Riis Nielson, Flemming Nielson: Semantics with Applications: An Appetizer, Springer, 2007.
- Lennart Andersson: Lecture notes.
- Paul Hudak et al.: A Gentle Introduction to Haskell. It is often convenient to define formal using a functional programming language. You will need to understand the notation but will not be required to write working programs in the language. The first 25 pages of this tutorial cover more than you need to know to for this course. If you consider the introduction not to be gentle enough you could start with Sebastian Sylvan's tutorial.
- Hugs. This is an interpreter for Haskell that is easy to install on unix, linux, and Windows platforms. You may use it to execute formal semantic definitions as interpreters for languages.
Seminars
For every seminar there will be a set of problems which the students are supposed to solve at home and present at the seminar. The solutions should be written down, but they will usually not be collected nor checked. At the start of the seminar each student shall mark on a list all problems which he/she is willing to present a solution to at the blackboard. The marks will give a bonus on the exam in June 2009. A maximal bonus will increase the exam score by 20% of the maximal score.
Students are encouraged to cooperate when solving the problems. The bonus will not be reduced for erratic solutions. However marking a problem which the student hasn't solved completely in his/her mind is not acceptable.
The seminar problems will appear on the course home page.Exams
The text book and the lecture notes may be consulted during the exam.