Manifest: Thursday 18 January 2001

Assignments
Sunday, 21 January (11:59 pm)	Registration Survey (required)

Readings
Readings in CS655 will be classified as:

• essential - I believe everyone should read this. It will be hard to convince me you deserve an A in the class if you do not understand what is in this reading assignment. We will probably discuss or use things from this reading in class. All essential readings will be handed out on paper in class or in the required text.
• recommended - I believe almost everyone would benefit from reading this. It will either not be discussed in class, or be discussed briefly. Being familiar with what is in this reading assignment will have little bearing on whether or not you are able to convince me you deserve on A in the class even if you are not familiar with what is in this paper. Recommended readings will usually not be handed out on paper, but will only be available as pointers to web pages on the manifests.

Read before 23 January (handed out today):

• (essential) Abelson and Sussman, Sections 1.1 and 1.2. Note: if you have not yet obtained, the full text is available on-line at http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/sicp/book/book.html.
• (recommended) Edsger Dijkstra, A Parable. A short, amusing story by a leading programming language designer - what does it have to do with programming language design?

Read before 25 January (handed out today):

• (essential) Abelson and Sussman, Section 1.3.
• (essential) Richard Kelsey, et. al., Revised⁵ Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme, 1998. Don't worry if you can't make any sense out of section 7.2, but do try to read it. We will read this again after covering the tools it uses.

Read as soon as you get Abelson and Sussman book:

• (essential) Abelson and Sussman, Foreward by Alan Perlis.

Questions
What is computer science?
What is a programming language?
Why are programming languages important to computer science?
What makes a programming language important?
Why is C++ the way it is?
Every reader should ask himself periodically "Toward what end, toward what end?" --- but do not ask it too often lest you pass up the fun of programming for the constipation of bittersweet philosophy.

From Alan Perlis' forward to Abelson and Sussman

University of Virginia Department of Computer Science CS 655: Programming Languages

David Evans evans@virginia.edu