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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
1,814 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

JF

Mar 14, 2023

Excellent course and teacher. I love that all of it was 100% accessible for free, and that it was both fun and challenging, yet very doable for most people who do their work and had prior experience.

YZ

Dec 2, 2016

I'm just a beginner for CS or SE classes, and find this course really concise and challenging. It opens a door for me to get deeper into programming language. No wonder it got so high average score.

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201 - 225 of 533 Reviews for Programming Languages, Part A

By Ruud W

May 3, 2021

Excellent course. Learn important functional programming concepts, using SML. Very good teacher with excellent videos and written material.

By Paul G

Jul 9, 2020

Great course. Lectures are clear and homework really helps understand the abstract concepts. Thank you for making this available for free!

By Feiyu L

Apr 14, 2018

such a clear introduction to Functional Programing. My fear of 'academic functional style' is totally gone, and really like recursion now.

By Anthony J

Jul 17, 2020

Instructor is clear and interesting. Course material builds in a way that helps you learn it. Great class, thanks for making it online.

By Oskar A

May 18, 2019

Great course, if you want to learn the foundations of functional programming in a purely functional language this is the course for you!

By Ling J

Nov 10, 2017

This is absolutely a challenge course for those people who are not familiar with functional programming. Nice course material and teach.

By Jesse T

Nov 25, 2017

Covers essential functional idioms, and explores ways of computation different than the usual imperative, object-oriented patterns.

By Yu Z

Jul 28, 2017

This course is fantastic. Taking this course is a very rewarding experience. A great investment for sure! Thank Dan and his team!

By gaa s

Sep 28, 2020

Thank you, professor Dan Grossman!

I've learned a lot amoung this course, and had inspired a lot from those concepts you taught.

By Mikhail D

Dec 29, 2019

One of my favourite courses on Coursera, first took it in 2013 and had much fun taking it again in 2019 to refresh my knowledge

By Philip S S

Jan 2, 2017

This course is strongly recommended for those who wants to learn functional programming and programming languages in general.

By Dennis E H

Sep 5, 2017

The lectures in this course are extraordinary, especially the ones that explain motivations and how the material was chosen.

By Eugene C

Jul 25, 2021

I could learn the terms pertain to programming languages, and I could grab the concept of funnctional programming. Thanks.

By dynasty919

Feb 21, 2018

i can't believe i have learnt so much about PL. prof. Dan knows exactly what kind of concept a beginner should grasp most.

By ZHENG Z

Jun 4, 2020

Great course! It taught me how to think in a functional way, as well as some funtamental truth about programming. Thanks!

By Fredy R

Jun 23, 2022

Amazing course, really good to dive into some functional concepts and learn more about functional programming languages.

By vain i

Oct 8, 2016

Very rewarding, worth taking. It enhanced my understanding of what is programming. I learned some principles of coding.

By John S

Aug 17, 2016

Great quality teaching and challenging homework. Much appreciated. Hoping for the Part B, and C to be on coursera soon.

By Randy H

Oct 5, 2016

Excellent instruction. I feel my programming ninja powers have definitely increased. Can't wait to do parts B and C.

By 蔡嘉文

Sep 20, 2019

good introduction to functional programming . sml is a fun language with type checking system and beautiful syntax.

By Calvin N

Aug 31, 2017

The course has changed the way I approach and learn new programming languages. I am going to take part B and C too!

By Ruchita S

Mar 4, 2021

Amazing! The course really broadens your perspective towards programming language and

I would highly

recommend it.

By Maximilian P

Nov 24, 2020

Awesome! Finally wrapped my head around some concepts that I had been trying to understand prior to this course.

By Maria L V

Mar 19, 2018

Great course, learned a lot. Dynamic videos and writen support. First experience with coursera very positive :)

By kojo

Jan 8, 2022

Very good teacher, super useful concepts. you should definitely take this course as well as part B and part C