CSE3401

CSE3401

Functional and Logic Programming

Students, who are familiar with the procedural and object-oriented approaches offered by Java and C, learn about and contrast functional programming (using the language LISP) and logic programming (using the language Prolog).

Course Description

This course covers functional and logic programming. Together with the students' background on procedural and object-oriented programming, the course allows them to compare the development of programs in these different types of languages.
"Functional programs work with values, not states. Their tools are expressions, not commands. How can assignments, arrays and loops be dispensed with? Does not the outside world have states? These questions pose real challenges. The functional programmer can exploit a wide range of techniques to solve problems." (Paulson, 1996)
"Based on predicate logic, it [logic programming] allows computing problems to be expressed in a completely `declarative' way, without giving instructions for how the problem is to be solved. An execution mechanism, like the one embodied in implementations of Prolog, can then be used to search efficiently and systematically for a solution of the problem." (Spivey, 1996)
Topics on functional programming may include: recursive, polymorphic and higher-order functions; recursive types and type inference. Topics on logic programming may include backtracking, resolution and unification.