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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
1,891 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

YZ

Dec 3, 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.

JF

Mar 15, 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.

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501 - 525 of 551 Reviews for Programming Languages, Part A

By Paulo S

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Aug 9, 2016

The best!

By Ahmed R

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Sep 5, 2023

Amazing.

By Amanda H L d A

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Oct 26, 2021

Amazing!

By Anderson R

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Oct 2, 2016

Awesome!

By Junlin G

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Sep 17, 2018

Love it

By ttttttttttttttttttttttt<>"

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Apr 9, 2018

Amazing

By 刘洋

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May 9, 2017

编程神课！！！

By gagandeep s

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Nov 14, 2021

awesum

By Mohammed S

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Sep 29, 2020

thanks

By Tacinight

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May 26, 2018

Great!

By 徐承恩

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Dec 23, 2017

G

r

e

a

t!

By yashwanth y

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Oct 24, 2024

great

By liruidong

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Mar 17, 2018

great

By 肖守冬

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May 7, 2017

great

By MAMILLA R S V K B

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Feb 12, 2024

Good

By MANJIT K

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Jul 2, 2022

Nice

By tran h

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Jun 9, 2022

good

By Nguyen D V

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Jun 7, 2022

good

By 陈放

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Jun 22, 2019

好的不行

By Mike

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Mar 26, 2019

Good

By Hugsy W

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Oct 23, 2017

good

By Darek J

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Sep 13, 2023

:)

By Héctor B A

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Sep 1, 2016

Great course overall. It focuses on functional programming concepts like immutability, locally-defined functions, pattern-matching and forces the user to use recursion, taking you out of your for-loop comfort zone. In my humble opinion, maybe the time spent in learning the SML language, which is not the main goal of the course, takes a bit too long, but on the other hand I guess that can't really be helped. Videos are grate and grading procedures are pretty fair. Mind you, the course is fairly time-consuming.

By Lorenzo B

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Jun 14, 2020

Four stars because for me at least one of the most interesting parts about the course it the comparisons that happen LATER in part B and C, between oop/fp and especially static/dynamic typing; that is, I treat this course as a test to see if you're interested in the whole thing (I am). Otherwise a solid 5/5. Also I personally found that polyml often gives clearer diagnostics than sml/nj, but your mileage may vary here. AND it's my first course here :=)