Functional Programming Languages in Education by P. H. Hartel and R. Plasmeijer, editors, Springer-Verlag, 1995.
Paul A. Bailes · Journal of Functional Programming · 1999
This Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Functional Programming Languages in Education embraces four kinds of paper:1. Straightforward experience or technical narratives.2. Papers with interesting technical insights or applications. Profound expositions of the combination of pedagogy with functional programming.4. An invited paper which may well be seen as seminal in its technical insight. NarrativesThe more straightforward experience or technical contributions cover topics such as:• opportunities/challenges in using functional programming as vehicle for a range of typical computer science curriculum topics (introduction to programming principles, as a first language, teaching data structures, compilers); • somewhat less usual applications: (algebraic theory, relational database); • enabling functional programming (execution animation, proof skills). Interesting technicalitiesThe following papers were more interesting.• Davison (p.35) deals with the transition from Miranda * as a first language to C/C++ as a second.• Jarvis, Pavia and Morgan (p.103) is actually an exposition of how functional languages support language extensibility, in this case for the specific domain of natural language processing.• Lester and Mintchev (p.159) present a machine assistant to help students learn and perform inductive proofs.• O'Donnell (P.195) presents a functional CHDL (computer hardware description language) and recounts experience in using it to teach computer architecture. Profound combinationsA further set have deep insights of potentially lasting value.