Lambda the Ultimate

SIGPLAN Workshop on Undergraduate Programming Language Curriculum.

Programming languages play a critical role in computer science by providing a flexible and robust means by which human beings interact with and control computer systems. Programming language design and implementation has advanced significantly in the recent past in response to the increasing pervasiveness of computer science and technology. Unfortunately, higher-education curriculum has not kept pace, and so it does not appropriately reflect the expansive growth and evolution. This lag is a critical challenge because an up-to-date curriculum is essential to prepare a globally competitive workforce, able to generate and to apply new knowledge, and to take the lead in advancing computer science and technology.

The goal of this workshop is to bring together leaders in the field of programming languages with expertise in research, teaching, and industrial use to discuss the role of programming language design, implementation, and application in modern, undergraduate, computer science education. Our objective with this effort is to build a community for these experts to discuss, critically evaluate, and identify the transformational changes needed to best prepare undergraduates to participate in the rapidly changing field of computer science and technology.

In particular, this workshop should provide a forum for the community (1) to evaluate recent changes and likely trends in computing technology and their impact on programming language design, implementation, and application (and vice versa), (2) to discuss the implications of these changes on programming language curricula, and (3) to explore strategies for designing new curricula. For the first task, we will consider trends that include the looming ubiquity of multi-processing systems, the proliferation of domain-specific languages, the increasing diversity of relevant programming languages, infrastructures, and support tools, the growing heterogeneity of device architectures (high-performance computing systems, desktops, game consoles, mobile phones, hand-held devices, etc.), and the increasing complexity of systems (operating, runtime, and application-level). For the second task, we will consider how these trends impact what and how we should be teaching our undergraduates about programming languages. Finally, for the third task, we will explore various tactics for designing new programming language curricula that incorporate the insights from these discussions and yet fit within the constraints of existing undergraduate programs.

We only rarely post links to conference or workshop announcements, but this seems like something worth calling out particular attention to. Many universities use ACM curriculum recommendations to structure their undergraduate programs, so it's very important to make sure that the programming languages recommendations are in good shape.

Back in 2003, Martin Berger conducted a fairly lengthy interview with Robin Milner. The transcript includes some interesting tidbits on the development of ML, CCS, and the pi-calculus. Among other things, you'll find a recounting of how Milner and David Park came up with the idea of bisimulation, a discussion of the rationale behind some of the design decisions Milner and his colleagues made in creating the pi-calculus, and Milner's thoughts on how theory should influence programming languages:

I do care that languages should be informed by theories...I actually think the best way forward for us now is to look at concurrent calculi as modelling theories for modelling interactions, whether they occur in programs or in outside programs...Languages should emerge from that. They should be treated as a part of a modelling theory. Up to now I don't think we had sufficient incentive to make sure that our languages are close to scientific models. It's only with the onset of computation as a global phenomenon that modelling those interactions becomes so scientifically important that it is bound to have its effect on programming languages.

From SC-L:

We would like to invite the community to review and comment on the current version of the CERT C Secure Coding Standard available online at www.securecoding.cert.org before Version 1.0 is published.

Hey, maybe this is also relevant for the curriculum thread.