CSIS 420 - Programming Language Project and Report

Overview

Written Report - 40% of project grade

A written report (approximately 10-15 pages printed 12-point single-spaced) that describes and evaluates the language. Your report should include, but is not limited to:

• Brief background and history of the language including its creators, lineage, purpose, and the broad category to which it belongs (i.e., functional, imperative, OO, logic). This should be at most one or two pages of your report; it should help to explain the genesis of your chosen language - i.e., answer the quesion why does this language exist?

• Syntactic and semantic features of the language such as
  • Basic Data types
  • Abstract Data Types
  • Basic Flow of Control
  • Program/Subprogram Structure
  • Development Environment (if applicable)
  with particular attention to those features that make this language distinctive. Do not attempt to describe the entire syntax and semantics of the language; give representative programming examples where helpful. You may assume that your reader is familiar with Python, Java and/or C/C++. So where your language is similar to any of these "familiar" languages you can briefly note the similarities and focus on significant differences.

• Synopsis of your hands-on experience with the language including the programs you have written for this project. Note: the programs you write should be included in your report as an appendix whose pages are not counted in the total number of pages of your report (e.g., if your report is a total of 10 pages and 3 of those are program listings, I consider your report 7 pages long and probably too short).

  You should also comment on the fitness of the language for its stated purpose. Evaluate its readability and writability and give an overall critique of the language - does it meet the creator's goal?

Include a bibliography of your sources (including online sources) and describe (and, where appropriate, provide references to) tools you used such as compilers/interpreters. Your bibliography and citations should be formatted using a discipline-standard style. Will will use the IEEE standard format for bibliographic entries and citations. The bibliography should be ordered in the order entries are cited within the paper (not alphabetical); non-cited entries can follow. Citations in the report should be of the form:

Database transactions are an important topic in the traditional undergraduate Database Management Systems course [1].

as demonstrated here . If you use an explicit point or direct quote from a source, include the page in the citation:

While Professor Beelzebub [1:4] has stated that that "the topic of transactions should be ommited from a first course in Database Management Systems", I am here to refute that suggestion.

Footnote citations (e.g. APA style), while commonly used in some disciplines, are generally not used in our discipline although some ACM publications use a "footnote" style for the citation to an IEEE-formatted bibliography. As noted above, we will use the IEEE standard here throughout.

Your report will be made available to the class via the course web pages and must be formatted accordingly (i.e., a PDF file). Your written report will be due one week before you are scheduled to give your oral report at the standard due-time; email a PDF of your report on or before the due date & time.

Your report will be graded both on content and presentation (e.g., organization, grammar). This is an important and formal writing assignment. I highly recommend that you have others proofread your work and/or make use of University-provided writing aids such as the Academic Resource Center. Here are some helpful proofreading hints.

Here is the written report evaluation rubric that will be used in part to evaluate your report. Here are some example papers from previous years.

Finally, it should go without saying that plagiarism in any form is a violation of Academic Integrity and my policies with respect to violations will be enforced including a grade of 0 for the entire project assigment, a grade that would almost certainly result in a repetition of the course.

Programming Assignments - 25% of project grade

One or more simple programming problems for you to solve using the language you have chosen. I will provide the programming problems to be solved. For full credit, you must obtain a compiler/interpreter and successfully implement these programs. Substantial partial credit (possibly full credit) will be given for those who have difficulty obtaining a compiler/interpreter for the language they choose if the submitted programs appear to be correct. I do not expect you to purchase a compiler for this project - if we can't find a freely available tool, that's OK.

Oral Presentation - 25% of project grade

An in-class oral presentation of the material in your written report and your hands-on experience with programming in the language. Your job is to tell us something about the language you've studied, focusing on the unique characteristics and applications of your language. You should not attempt to cover all of the material in your written report but should emphasize some of the highlights and possibly provide some code fragments as an aid to discussion. You should plan on giving a brief 15 minute presentation with a couple of minutes for questions for a total of < 17 minutes (poor time management will affect your grade). You should practice your presentation ahead of time to determine how well you fit the time constraints. If you plan to use A/V resources, visit the room ahead of time and make sure you know how to connect to and use the equipment. As this is a formal presentation, I expect you to dress for the part. These are all part & parcel of giving a formal presentation and anything less looks sloppy and unprofessional.

Here is the oral report evaluation rubric that will be used in part to evaluate your presentation.

Participation - 10% of project grade

These points will be awarded based on three criteria

1. Submission of a written report evaluation for each presentation scheduled for a particular day before the beginning of that class period.
2. Submission of an oral presentation evaluation for each presentation immediately following the presentations on a particular day.

   Note: I expect substantive comments to be provied in each rubric submitted; the written report in particular provides an opportunity to provide a good deal of thoughtful feedback.

3. Your interaction via questions during the Q & A time following each presentation. I do not expect you to ask a question of every presenter, but if you never ask a question of another student, you will recieve greatly reduced credit for participation.