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

4.9
stars
1,906 ratings

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

SS

Jan 3, 2017

Instant favourite programming course. Great instructor and material, fun assignments, mind-bendy recursion, cool concepts you didn't know you wanted to know about. Learned a lot.

SZ

Apr 2, 2017

Great course! One of the few courses I actually finished on Coursera. Though I think it could be made longer to have less lectures/homework, but that's probably a general issue with Coursera for me.

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326 - 350 of 554 Reviews for Programming Languages, Part A

By Enrico F

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Oct 14, 2019

Great course, better than many CS courses I had in university

By Thomas C

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Jun 10, 2018

A wonderful course for learning about functional programming.

By Hrushikesh N

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Nov 15, 2016

Perfectly good start for a person aspiring to be a programmer

By robin

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Sep 1, 2016

One of the more challenging and interesting CS MOOC out there

By David H

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May 24, 2021

Best course on functional programming on the entire internet

By Michael E

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Apr 5, 2018

Great course with deep information on functional programming

By lander

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Sep 4, 2017

very helpful! Thank you for the teacher Dan and the college.

By Illia D

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Dec 26, 2023

Amazing experience, should've completed it 10+ years ago...

By Matzej L W

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Jun 1, 2017

So far I am struggling with first lesson, it is formidable.

By Zijiao Y

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Mar 31, 2017

Best starting class for study any programming language ever

By Claude B

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Feb 22, 2018

One of the best, and most challenging, courses on Coursera

By 刘宴先

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Aug 20, 2017

Great materials. Very helpful for understanding Recursion.

By Hasanabbas R

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May 30, 2023

Just an amazing course. Do yourself a favour and take it!

By John M

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Jun 17, 2020

I have learned more than I imagined. The professor rocks.

By João F d A J

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Jan 3, 2020

i'm starting this course,and i love the main theme of it.

By Eisenhower R G

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Nov 28, 2017

my instructor is a great person and is a excelent teacher

By GoForce5500

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Oct 15, 2017

鉴于此课程对于函数式编程和面向对象编程的深入剖析，建议改名为《程序设计语言范式》，简单的命名误导了潜在的目标受众。

By Yixin G

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Jul 27, 2017

Very Good. I am very excited to learn the next two parts.

By Wang Y

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Jul 13, 2017

I think it's the most useful and interesting course here.

By walker

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Sep 4, 2016

I learn many important programming language concepts here

By Andy C

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Aug 26, 2020

learn something more than what I expected from beginning

By Yicheng H

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Aug 16, 2020

A very nice elementary course to functional programming!

By Erik D

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Oct 4, 2018

A great course which shows functional concepts in depth.

By Vinay J

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Jul 24, 2017

Very clearly explains the functional programming basics.

By Jingjia P

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Jan 21, 2024

Good instruction and exercise to learn the PL concepts!