A Framework for Teaching Programming Languages

This paper provides a description of a framework for programming language implementation that is accessible to students in a one semester course focused on programming languages. Rather than concentrating solely on language features, this paper describes a framework where imperative, functional, and logic programming languages are all used to develop a compiler for a non-trivial subset of a functional programming language. Provided by the framework are a virtual machine, a disassember of Python programs, a partial implementation of a Standard ML compiler with suggested tests, and a partial implementation of a type inference system implemented using Prolog, again with suggested tests. Classroom experience gained while using this framework is also shared. A suggested fourteen week sequence is provided. Real reactions from students and reflections on coverage of the ACM 2013 Curricula guildelines conclude the paper.