Midterm Topics

Overview

The midterm will cover everything we've done thus far. The format will be short answer. Below are the topics you can expect to be on the exam:

Lexing and Parsing

• The role of lexing and parsing, such as what is done at each stage.
• Be able to understand lexer and parser rules. For instance, be able to derive a string from a grammar, or say that it cannot be derived.
• Write simple lexer and parser rules using regex / CFG notation.
• Know the difference between top-down and bottom-up parsing.

Racket

• Be able to read and answer questions about short Racket programs.
• Be able to write expressions and short bits of code in Racket.
• Understand the "homoiconicity" of Lisp languages and what this lets one do, i.e. macros.
• Understand what the higher-order functions we discussed do.

General

• Be able to compare imperative vs. Functional programming.
• Be able to define strong, static, dynamic and weak type systems.