Course Descriptor

Course:   Types and Programming Languages

Course Web page

Credit Points	10
Credit Level	10
Acronym	INF-4-TPL
Study Pattern	Study Format		Hours
	Lectures		20
	Tutorials		0
	Timetabled Laboratories		0
	Non-timetabled assessed assignments		24
	Private Study/Other		56
	Total		100

Pre-requisite Courses	Compiling Techniques is recommended, Language Semantics & Implementation is strongly recommended.
Other Pre-requisite Requirements	Successful completion of Year 3 of an Informatics Single or Combined Honours Degree, or equivalent by permission of the School.
Co-requisites/Forbidden Combinations	Recommended companion courses are Formal Programming Language Semantics and Advances in Programming Languages.

Short Description

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

• be able to explain the principles and practice of type systems for programming languages;
• given a particular type system, describe and analyse the abstractions it provides;
conversely, given a description of an abstract property and a small programming language, design a static type system which captures an approximation of the property;
• relate type systems to other forms of static analysis;
• compare programming languages based on features of their type systems.

Assessed Coursework

Syllabus

• Types, typing, and typability. Type safety. Progress and preservation.
• Simply typed lambda-calculus. Extensions with type constructors and derived forms. General recursion.
• Recursive types.
• Reference types and exceptions.
• Subtyping. Subsumption and its understanding as inclusion or coercion.
• Type systems for object-oriented programming
• Polymorphism, type variables. Universal types, existential types.
• Implementation issues. Algorithmic typing and decidability.
• Advanced topics, chosen from: dependent types; type systems based on constraint systems; types for definitions; module type systems; effectful type systems.

Relevant QAA Computing Curriculum Sections:  Comparative Programming Languages, Compilers and Syntax Directed Tools, Programming Fundamentals, Theoretical Computing

Reading List

• Benjamin C Pierce, Types and Programming Languages, MIT Press, 2002.
• Benjamin C Pierce, editor, Advanced Topics in Types and Programming Languages, MIT Press, 2005.

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