Commonalities and differences among the different languages and their features are discussed. Students learn about a variety of different programming languages and about their relative strengths and weaknesses. Students gain experience designing and writing programs in a selected set of languages. Principles and Practice, PWS-Kent Publishing, 1993. Textbooks for specific languages used for the projects.
Students work individually or in small groups on three programming projects.
Students design, implement, and test their solutions. The projects involve the design, implementation, and testing of programs that focus on various concepts in programming languages. The facilities used for these programming projects resemble those that would be found in industry to the extent possible, given the academic constraints. The project assignments define performance specifications and constraints, and outline a general approach to the problem. However, design and implementation details are left to the students.