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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
1,906 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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551 - 554 of 554 Reviews for Programming Languages, Part A

By Kyle A

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Nov 20, 2023

The content is good, but I can't stand the peer-reviewed assignments.

By Gino H

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Jul 6, 2023

Emacs is the worst possible editor to deal with for someonw who wants to learn in this course.

This turns out to be and Emacs course, as you spend all your energy trying to deal with issues related to emacs instead of learning what you are here for: programming.

Emacs gets in the way of actually doing that learning. And there is no support. The forum is a joke.

The instructor cares more about emacs than actually teaching programming.

How does this course even gets rated highly?

By Чумин М Л

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Jun 6, 2024

Not a modern high-level programming language with difficult syntax