Resources

Quick Reference

• Ruby (2.2.3)
  • Core language (old text, but mostly right)
  • Classes & methods : Array, Hash, Regexp, String
• OCaml (4.02.x)
  • Core language
  • Basic libraries: Pervasives, List, String, Str
• Prolog (SWI Prolog 7.2.3)
  • Core language
  • Built-in predicates

Software Installation

• Install Ruby 2.4 for Windows here. Directions for other systems here.
• Directions for Installing OCaml on Windows here. Directions for other systems here.
• Download SWI-prolog 7.2.3 for Windows and other platforms here. It is also available with standard package management tools (e.g., homebrew, ports for the Mac).

VirtualBox Linux VM

• If you want to work in a virtual Linux environment on your Windows computer, you can use a virtual machine. First, you have to download VirtualBox from https://www.virtualbox.org/ and install it. Then download the Linux VM image file CMSC330-spr17.zip, and open it with VirtualBox. This Linux image have Ruby, OCaml, Prolog, and emacs installed. You can install other tools if you want.
• Linux VM Image (CMSC330_VM.zip, 2.8GB) (Linux admin user name: cs, password: cmsc330!)

Ruby

• ruby-lang.org - The main Ruby website.
• Quick Start (Ruby in 20 minutes)
• Introduction to Ruby - A simple introduction to basic Ruby
• PythonTutor for Ruby - An interactive, web-based visual debugger for Ruby programs
• The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide - "The Pickaxe Book" is a more comprehensive overview of Ruby. It's an online version of the first edition of a printed Ruby book. The only thing to keep in mind is that it covers Ruby 1.6, while you can buy the newest printed version which covers the Ruby 1.9 and 2.0. We probably won't do anything for this course where the difference between versions. There's a lot of information here which you won't need- the most relevant sections are the first fourteen listed (the first up through "Basic Input and Output"), then "When Trouble Strkes", "Ruby and Its World", and "The Ruby Language" and "Classes and Objects". These last two are good summary references for the language.
• Ruby Class Reference
• Ruby documentation - A list from ruby-lang.org of Ruby reference manuals, online sources of Ruby information (some of the ones which will probably be more useful are mentioned specifically below), and Ruby articles. If you want to buy a printed book about Ruby several are listed.
• Ruby User's Guide - An English translation of a book written by the designer of the language. More of a language reference than a tutorial.

OCaml

• Main OCaml site
• The OCaml Manual
• Tutorials: at OCaml site and interactive tutorial in the style of Code Academy
• Real World OCaml - Excellent (free, on-line) book about how to use OCaml for industrial strength programming.
• Developing Applications with Objective Caml - Entire book in html & PDF
• Camelia tool for OCaml
• Tuareg mode for Emacs
• CamlQuiz - Interactive OCaml Tutorial

Prolog

• Core language
• SWI-Prolog manual
• SWI-Prolog FAQ
• Links to Prolog resources

Formal grammars and finite automata

• On-line tool for playing with regular expressions
• Rubular does Ruby regexps specifically
• On-line tool for playing with CFGs
• Book: Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages & Computation
• Book: Introduction to the Theory of Computation by Michael Sipser
  This book has lots of good explanation. See Sipser's course for more material.
• Wikipedia actually has good pages on some of these things (and the references they cite are generally useful too):
  • regular expressions
  • dfas
  • nfas
  • context-free grammars

Lambda calculus

• Overview of lambda calculus at Wikipedia

Java Generics

• Sun Tutorial

Java Garbage Collection

• Java's garbage-collected heap: Java World article

Ruby On Rails

• Rails is a full-stack framework for developing database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Control pattern.
• Instant Rails is a single package containing Ruby, Rails, Apache, and MySQL, all pre-configured and ready to run without installation. Currently for Windows only.

Git

• Learn Git

Other relevant texts

Previous required texts for CMSC 330 have chapters on relevant topics covered in this course. If the lecture notes are insufficient, look for these books. They should be available in the university library.

• Concepts of Programming Languages (Seventh Edition) by R. Sebesta, Addison Wesley (2006) (ISBN 0-321-33025-0).
• Programming Languages: Design and Implementation (Fourth Edition) by T. Pratt and M. Zelkowitz, Prentice Hall (2001) (ISBN 0-13-027678-2).
• O'Reilly History of Programming Languages Poster