CS 421: Programming Languages and Compilers


Videos of class lectures (Channel CS 421 - FALL 2026)
Lecture Schedule for Fall 2026
Schedule subject to change as course progresses.
Lecture slides for lectures not yet given are preliminary, and may change or may not be posted yet.
Day Date Topic Slides and Code Videos Asmt Given Asmt Due
Week 1  
1Aug 25 Course Introduction, Introduction to Ocaml, Environments slides (PPT) (full sized PDF)

code (OCaml CODE) (SHELL)

Lect 1 MP1: OCaml: Basic Ocaml
2Aug 27 Ocaml Boolean, Tuples, Functions, Closures slides continued from Lecture 1 Lect 2 WA1: Evaluation and Evironments
Week 2  
3Sep 1 Closures and Evaluation of Function Application, Order of Evaluation in OCaml slides (PPT) (full sized PDF) Lect 3 MP2: Pattern Matching and Recursion MP1
4Sep 3 Higher-Order Functions, Pattern Matching and Recursion over Lists slides continued from Lecture 3 Lect 4 WA2: Evaluating the Application of a Function WA1
Week 3  
5Sep 8 Lists, List Pattern Matching, Recursion over Lists, Structural Recursion (PPT) (full sized PDF) Lect 5 MP3: Patterns of Recursion, Higher-order Functions
6Sep 10
Quiz 1 on MP2
MP2
6Sep 10 Forms of Recursion and Higher-Order Recursive Operators slides continued from Lecture 5 Lect 6 WA3XC: Order of Evaluation WA2
Week 4  
7Sep 15 Continuations and Continutation Passing Style slides (PPT) (full sized PDF), Lect 7 MP4: Higher-Order Functions and Continuation-Passing Style MP3
8Sep 17 Continuation Passing Style (CPS) Transformation slides continued from Lecture 7 Lect 8 WA4: CSP Transformation; Working with Mathematical Specifications WA3XC (full cr)
Week 5  
9Sep 22 User Defined Types in Ocaml, Data Constructors and Pattern Matching slides (PPT) (full sized PDF), Lect 9 MP5: Working with ADTs: Implementing CPS Transformation MP4
9/24-9/26
Midterm 1, CBTF
Covers through Leture 7
10Sep 24 Recursive Data Types in OCaml slides continued from Lecture 9 Lect 10 WA4 was given 9/18
Week 6  
11Sep 29
Quiz 2 on MP5
MP5
11Sep 29 Types and Type Systems slides (PPT) (full sized PDF) Lect 11
12Oct 1 Type Derivation slides continued from Lecture 11 Lect 12 WA5: Polymorphic Type Derivation WA4
Week 7  
13Oct 6
Quiz 2 on MP5
MP5
13Oct 6 Monomorphic and Polymorphic Type Derivation slides (PPT) (full sized PDF) Lect 13 MP6: A Unification-Based Type Inferencer
14Oct 9 Polymorphic Type Derivation slides (PPT) (full sized PDF) Lect 14 WA6: Incremental Unification Algorithm WA5
Week 8  
15Oct 13 Type Inference slides continued from Lecture 14 Lect 15 MP7: Unification Algorithm
16Oct 15 Day Off for MT2
10/15-10/17
Midterm 2, CBTF
Covers Lecture 8 - 14
Week 9  
17Oct 20 Unification slides(PPT) (Full PDF) Lect 17 WA7: Regular Expressions MP6
18Oct 22 Regular Expressions, Right Regular Grammars, OCamllex slides continued Lect 18 MP8: A Lexer for PicoML
WA6
Week 10  
19Oct 27
Quiz 3 on MP7
MP7
19Oct 27 Ocamllex cont, BNF Grammars, Parsing slides (PPT) (PDF)(full sized PDF)
code (expr.ml) (exprlex.mll) (exprparse.mly)
Lect 19 MP8 was given 10/23
20Oct 29 Parse Trees, Ambiguous Grammars, Disambiguating Grammars Part 1, Ocamlyacc slides (cont) Lect 20 WA8: Parse Trees WA7
Week 11  
21Nov 3 Disambiguating Grammars slides (PPT) (Full PDF) Lect 21 MP9: A Parser for PicoML MP8
22Nov 5 Ocamlyacc, LR Parsing slides (cont) Lect 22 WA9: Natural and Transition Semantics WA8
Week 12  
23Nov 10 Action and Goto Tables, Natural Semantics slides (PPT) (Full PDF) Lect 23 MP10: An Evaluator for PicoML
24Nov 12 Day off for MT3
11/12-11/14
Midterm 3, CBTF
Covers Lecture 15-22
Week 13  
25Nov 17 Transition Semantics slides continued from Lecture 23 Lect 25 MP11: A Transition Semantics Evaluator for CPS MP9
26Nov 19 Intro to Lambda Calculus slides (PPT) (Full PDF) Lect 26 WA10:Lambda Calculus WA9
Week of Fall Break  
Nov 24 Thanksgiving
Nov 26 Thanksgiving
Week 14  
27Dec 1 Lambda Calculus - Evaluation slides (PPT) (Full PDF) Lect 27 WA11: Hoare Logic MP10
28Dec 3 Intro to Axiomatic Semantics slides: (PPT) (Full PDF) extra slides: (PPT) (Full PDF) Lect 28 WA10
Week 15  
29Dec 8 Hoare Logic (cont) Lect 29 MP11
End of Classes  
Dec 9 Last day of classes WA11, WA3XC (late, max 80%)
Finals Week  
Dec 14 FINAL (1:30pm-4:30pm) Cummulative, with more weight on the last third