Advanced Functional Programming, Spring 2014 (TDA342 / DIT260)

News

2014-12-17:		The AFP 2015 course instance homepage is in www.cse.chalmers.se/edu/course/afp/
2014-08-25:		Re-exam + solutions added.

Staff / contact information

• Patrik Jansson, Lecturer and Examiner, patrik.jansson@chalmers dot se
• Jonas Duregård, Teaching Assistant, jonas.duregard@chalmers dot se
• Dan Rosén, Teaching Assistant, danr@chalmers dot se
• Contact: email to Patrik or Jonas or Dan (write in English), Patrik: 031-7725415, 0763-694349
• Homepage: http://www.cse.chalmers.se/edu/course/afp/
• Discussion board: afp14 (at Google Groups)
• Office hours: Patrik: Mon. 15-16, Thu. 13-14. Jonas: Tue. 13-15, Dan: Wed. 10-12

Overview

• AFP is an elective, advanced MSc level university course. It is run by the FP group at the CSE department (Chalmers and GU).
• Contains three programming assignments, done in pairs
• and a written exam (you may bring a "summary sheet"). Official examination details
• Course "size": 7.5hec = 1/8 study year ~= 200h = 25h/week => time to get started;-)
• Grading: The final grade of the course is a based on a weighted average of the lab grade and the exam grade (provided that both are at least "Pass"). The weights are the number of credits: 4.5cr (60%) for the labs and 3cr (40%) for the exam. Among the labs, number 2 has a higher weight.

Aim and context

Learning outcomes: (see also the lecture 14 overview from 2012)

• DSL: design embedded domain specific languages
  • DSL.Concepts: (abstract) syntax, semantics, ...
  • DSL.Implement: implement EDSLs in Haskell (as combinator libraries)
• Types: read, understand and extend Haskell programs which use advanced type system features
  • Types.Class: type classes, newtypes, deriving, ...
  • Types.GADT: (generalised) algebraic datatypes & type families
  • Types.HOT: functors, monads and monad transformers
• Spec: use specification based development techniques
  • Spec.Test: formulate and test properties about the program
  • Spec.Prove: reason about correctness of functional programs
  • Spec.Trans: transform programs on the basis of reasoning
• Expl: explain and discuss the above topics

Context

The AFP course requires a BSc in Computer Science or equivalent, mathematical maturity, a basic course on Functional Programming (like our version) and a course on Programming Lanuages (like ProgLangTech or ProgPara). Other recommended courses are Logic in CS, Algorithms and Finite automata theory and formal languages.

Important Dates

	Mon	Jan 20	:	First lecture, 13.15-15.00 in EL43
	Wed	Jan 29	:	Deadline, Assignment 1 - part 1
	Wed	Feb 5	:	Deadline, Assignment 1 - part 2
	Wed	Feb 12	:	Deadline, Assignment 2 - part 1
	Sun	Feb 23	:	Deadline, Assignment 2 - part 2
	Wed	Feb 26	:	Deadline, Assignment 3 - part 1
	Sun	Mar 9	:	Deadline, Assignment 3 - part 2
	Tue	Mar 11	:	Exam, morning, Johanneberg
	Sun	Mar 16	:	Final Deadline, Assignments

Course Evaluation

For the purpose of course evaluation each course has student representatives. Their role includes giving the teachers feedback on the course. Notes from the meeting(s).

AFP student representatives 2014: K. Bristav (CID=karlbr), D. Eddeland (danedd), A. Gufler (gufler), F. Levenstam (lfilip), D. Oom (lalti). They can be reached by CID@student.chalmers.se.

Chalmers central instructions on course evaluation.

The final evaluation 2013 recommended a lower pace, fewer invited lectures and more exercise sessions. As a response to this we have spread out the first few lectures' material (from five to six lectures), removed one invited lecture and added one exercise session (Monday study week 7 from 15.15).

Lectures

Official schedule (TimeEdit). Most of the course weeks have two lectures (always in EL43):

	Mon		13.15 - 15.00		EL43
	Thu		10.00 - 11.45		EL43

Detailed information on the lectures are here.

Course material

	The course book (nick-named "The World" or "RWH" below) is "Real World Haskell" by Bryan O'Sullivan, Don Stewart, and John Goerzen. Some related papers to read and other material will be provided with the lectures.
These books are all good but presented in order of decreasing relevance for the AFP course.
"The Haskell School of Expression" by Paul Hudak ("The School") "The Fun of Programming" edited by Jeremy Gibbons and Oege de Moor ("The Fun") "Programming in Haskell" by Graham Hutton ("The Prog.") "Haskell -- The Craft of Functional Programming" by Simon Thompson ("The Craft")