CS3518Languages and Computability

Kees van Deemterk.vdeemter@abdn.ac.uk

LecturesMonday 14:00 MT6Tuesday 11:00 KC T2

Tutorials/PracticalsTuesday 13:00-15:00 (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

Let’s get started with formal languages