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Back to Programming Languages, Part A

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Programming Languages, Part A by University of Washington

4.9
stars
1,438 ratings
•
420 reviews

About the Course

This course is an introduction to the basic concepts of programming languages, with a strong emphasis on functional programming. The course uses the languages ML, Racket, and Ruby as vehicles for teaching the concepts, but the real intent is to teach enough about how any language “fits together” to make you more effective programming in any language -- and in learning new ones. This course is neither particularly theoretical nor just about programming specifics -- it will give you a framework for understanding how to use language constructs effectively and how to design correct and elegant programs. By using different languages, you will learn to think more deeply than in terms of the particular syntax of one language. The emphasis on functional programming is essential for learning how to write robust, reusable, composable, and elegant programs. Indeed, many of the most important ideas in modern languages have their roots in functional programming. Get ready to learn a fresh and beautiful way to look at software and how to have fun building it. The course assumes some prior experience with programming, as described in more detail in the first module. The course is divided into three Coursera courses: Part A, Part B, and Part C. As explained in more detail in the first module of Part A, the overall course is a substantial amount of challenging material, so the three-part format provides two intermediate milestones and opportunities for a pause before continuing. The three parts are designed to be completed in order and set up to motivate you to continue through to the end of Part C. The three parts are not quite equal in length: Part A is almost as substantial as Part B and Part C combined. Week 1 of Part A has a more detailed list of topics for all three parts of the course, but it is expected that most course participants will not (yet!) know what all these topics mean....

Top reviews

YZ
Dec 2, 2016

I'm just a beginner for CS or SE classes, and find this course really concise and challenging. It opens a door for me to get deeper into programming language. No wonder it got so high average score.

VA
Mar 4, 2018

Very interesting course! Superb teaching and homework assignments. If you are interested in functional programming or in programming languages in general, this should be one of the must take MOOCs

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401 - 415 of 415 Reviews for Programming Languages, Part A

By Chua B Q

•
May 18, 2019

Solid introduction to functional programming and programming languages concepts.

By Philip A

•
Nov 29, 2016

The peer review was too time consuming. Otherwise great course

By Steve C

•
Sep 3, 2020

A challenging course with some deep insight into programming.

By Mark R

•
Jun 17, 2019

Good intro. to Functional Programming

By CLARISA B H C

•
Mar 5, 2019

Muy buena información; nivel alto.

By 畅 刘

•
Jul 29, 2018

Quite interesting~

By Ojesanmi F

•
Aug 28, 2020

so cool

By LvGJ

•
Jul 27, 2020

good

By lhdgriver

•
Sep 29, 2019

Easy

By Andrew M

•
Nov 10, 2019

This series of courses Part A-C looks amazing BUT using SML/NJ is critical to Part A. On a MAC running Catalina SML will not run, maybe because it utilises 32bit routines which cannot run on Catalina. I found an online version of standard ML but it isn't suited to doing the homeworks.

By Stepan K

•
Apr 9, 2017

Not very applicable for the real world. Recursion over lists can be a nice mind exercise but please don't use it in real world, there are way too many stack overflows, unneeded context switches and cryptic code already, don't add to it.

By Кассиров И

•
Jan 14, 2021

Я очень хотел пройти данный курс, но из-за того, что в последний раз информация по пользованию программами обновлялась в 2016 году, как тут сказано, не смог выполнить даже создание файла.

И сейчас не могу найти как отписаться от этого курса.

By 张浥东

•
Nov 18, 2016

a little boring. I spent lots of time on learning on an useless language rather than learning the spirit of functional programming. I suppose to use C/C++\python or other normal programming language as the lesson language.

By Nathan J

•
Jul 7, 2020

I have problem keeping up wit the course because not only I have experienced regular Internet issue but also I Have difficulty configuring the SML to work properly.

In truth the course is rated five stars.

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