CS3518 Languages and Computability Kees van Deemter Lectures Monday14:00MT6 Tuesday11:00KC T2 Tutorials/Practicals Tuesday13:00-15:00 (one group) and 15:00-17:00 (another), in Meston 311

Aims of the course The main question of the course: –What problems can be solved on a computer? –I.e., which problems are computable? Different perspectives on computability exist. In most of these, problems are seen as formal languages Hence, we start talking about formal languages –only the basics!

Aims of the course Given that we know what a problem is, how does a solution look? A solution is an algorithm encoded in a programming language We consider 2 types of programming languages: –Imperative languages (e.g. JAVA) –Functional languages (e.g. HASKELL) –(If time allowed: logical languages, e.g. PROLOG)

Aims of the course Hence the second and third topics of the course: Functional programming languages Imperative programming languages Finally, we shall present the basics of computability theory Just the basics!

Course structure in more detail 1.Formal languages 2.Functional programming 3.Imperative Programming 4.Computability

Course structure in more detail 1.Formal languages –finite state automata and regular languages 2.Functional programming –Theory: lambda calculus –Practice: Haskell 3.Imperative Programming –Turing machines 4.Computability

History of CS3518 In previous years at Aberdeen, there were several courses in this area: –CS3511: Discrete Methods –CS3012: Formal language and Compilers –CD4026: Formal models of computation All three modules now merged into CS3518 –But some set theory and symbolic logic covered in year 1 (Foundations of Computing 1&2) –Please take a look at your old course notes

Lets get started with formal languages