University of Virginia, Department of Computer Science
CS655: Programming Languages
Spring 200/0

Position Papers

Questions

Due Monday 24 Jan: Write a "Why X is not my favorite language" paper (Selected student papers)
Due Monday 21 Feb: An Array of Arrays
Due Monday 28 Feb: CLUs about Ada
Due Monday 3 Apr: Mock Trial Verdict

Your grader will stop reading your paper after pressing the space bar four times. Don't submit anything longer than the template.

Logistics

Papers are due at 11:59pm on the due date. Submit your paper by both:

Posting a web page. Use the template in http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~cs655-S00/papers/paper-template.html. If you are tempted to use any fancy HTML that is not demonstrated in the template, make sure to read Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing first.
Sending email to cs655-staff@cs.virginia.edu containing both the URL of your web page and a copy of its contents.

We assume all submitted papers may be freely reposted on the course web site and distributed (in excerpt or in full) to the class. If for some reason you do not want something you submit to be public, contact one of the course staff.

Grading

Position paper grades are described by the language:

   0 |  ( - | + ) *

where the value of a position paper is determined by the following attribute grammar:

   grade     ==> 0             { grade.value = 0 }
   grade     ==>  modifiers { grade.value = modifiers.value }
   modifiers ==> - modifiers   { modifiers_l.value = .5 * modifiers_r.value }
   modifiers ==> + modifiers   { modifiers_l.value = 2 * modifiers_r.value }
   modifiers ==>               { modifiers.value = 1 }

There is no limit to the number of -'s or +'s a paper may receive. The standards are:

-- means you turned something in, but we aren't sure what you were smoking when you wrote it.
- means you made a valid attempt to answer the question, but either made some technical errors or wrote in a way the grader couldn't understand your paper.
means you have adequately answered the question and revealed some understanding of the material.
+ means your paper was well-written, had at least one interesting insight, and revealed solid understanding of the material (I expect to have a few + papers per assignment).
++ means your paper contained substantial original ideas and revealed deep understanding of the material and keen insight (I expect ot have only a few ++ papers during the whole semester; these will usually be assigned for all your classmates to read).
+++ means your paper represents a significant research contribution to the programming languages field.
++++ means your paper represents a significant research contribution for all of computer science.
+++++ means you proved (or disproved) P = NP.
++++++ means you brought an end to all wars, cured cancer, ended world hunger, won the world cup, and uplifted humanity (I don't expect to have any of these this year).

An average of 1 on position papers is approximately a B. An average of 2 would be an A+. Note that the value of

+++++ is 32, so if you get one of these and don't turn in any other position papers, your position papers grade (assuming 6 papers during the term) is 5.3, which will give you an A in the class even if you don't do anything else.

If you are unhappy with a grade on a position paper and feel it was misunderstood by the grader, you may submit a one page response that adresses the criticisms of your paper. Your grade may be adjusted either up or down based on your response.

University of Virginia
CS 655: Programming Languages

cs655-staff@cs.virginia.edu
Last modified: Mon Feb 26 12:48:17 2001