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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
1,814 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

JF

Mar 14, 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.

YZ

Dec 2, 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.

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151 - 175 of 533 Reviews for Programming Languages, Part A

By Denis K

Mar 23, 2018

A very good introduction to functional programming. I especially liked how precisely (although not formally) lexical scoping, semantic, evaluation rules, types checking algorithm of SML were defined.

By Sergey Z

Apr 3, 2017

Great course!

One of the few courses I actually finished on Coursera.

Though I think it could be made longer to have less lectures/homework, but that's probably a general issue with Coursera for me.

By Ruben P

Nov 26, 2020

Amazing topics and teaching for start programming with a solid base since the beggining. It is not an easy course, so one have to do a hard work, and that is one the best things of this couse.

By Aayush S

Dec 29, 2019

Instructor's strive for perfection really shows. The quality of content is top-notch; both for the video explanations and the pdfs. Definitely going to check out the other two parts as well.

By Herb M

Nov 17, 2016

Much much better than I ever expected even though I had already seen how good the instructor's other video lessons are -- definitely worth the time to take the course and do the home work.

By syoya

May 17, 2020

A basic introduction to programming languages especially ML family. It's quite helpful to understand the theory behind the language design but not practical from a short-term perspective.

By Kostas O

Jan 22, 2018

A great course, covering a wide range of topics in programming languages. Very well paces and Dan Grossman is an amazing teacher! Must watch for every programmer, beginner or experienced.

By Jan H

Dec 27, 2016

I took this course about 10 years off the college, and it was excellent refresher on the topics I don't use on a daily basis. Absolutely great lecturer, great videos and study materials!

By Cheng H

Dec 22, 2018

Best ever classic courses! Never learnt so much from any programming courses! Expect to see materials can be published as book even textbook! Looking forward further courses from Dan!

By Jingning T

Jul 3, 2018

Great content. Everything is free to access so really learnt a lot from the homework and the exam. Also the professor is really good at illustrating the concepts with simple examples.

By Dmytro F

Jan 29, 2023

Great course! I learned the ML programming language and functional programming in general. I recommend it to everyone interested in programming. Assignments are interesting and fun.

By Sean E

Mar 12, 2018

Exceptionally well thought-through content taught by a highly motivating teacher. Without doubt one of the best courses I have taken on Coursera so far. Demanding and very rewarding!

By Igor B

Oct 10, 2016

This is one of the best courses that I have ever taken before! I have got a good introduction in functional programming and understood a lot of new concepts of programming languages.

By Zhengtao X

Dec 10, 2018

This is a good course. It helps me to understand the same features about different programming languages, so I can get started quickly when I need to use a new programming language.

By Roberto U G

Jun 20, 2017

Awesome course. A wonderful introduction to statically typed functional programming with a simple and concise language. After I took this course, Scala started to make more sense.

By Siddhartha S

Dec 3, 2017

Exceptionally brilliant course. The instructor, Dr. Dan Grossman became one of my favorite teachers of my life. The contents are solid, illuminating at the same time challenging.

By Sean

Jan 4, 2017

Instant favourite programming course. Great instructor and material, fun assignments, mind-bendy recursion, cool concepts you didn't know you wanted to know about. Learned a lot.

By Jon B

Oct 10, 2016

Fantastic course providing not only a great introduction to Functional Programming fundamentals, but also leading on to how languages relate to one another. Highly recommended.

By Anup P

Nov 23, 2023

This is one of the best courses I've taken - not only in terms of structure and content but also in terms of quizzes, programming assignments and exams (practice and final).

By Ernesto P

Dec 30, 2018

Excellent course! I learned the basic concepts of functional programming which I feel will be useful throughout my entire career, event when not writing functional code.

By Wojciech B

Sep 4, 2020

Really good content, I've learned a lot! In my opinion, some homework tasks are art for the art's sake, but overall really valuable. Looking forward to starting part B!

By Alexandre C

Sep 28, 2016

Very interesting way to see programming fundamentals concepts without the "pollution" of any specific language constraints. Nice job from the developers of this course.

By Yik S C

Apr 8, 2018

Awesome introduction to functional programming. A wonderful supplement to my working language Scala. Would be helpful for everyone working with functional programming.

By Deleted A

Feb 26, 2021

Very good course, the teacher goes in depth to explain the subject, the homeworks are challenging, so if you complete them, you know you actually learned the material

By Arent S

Nov 6, 2018

This is one of the best courses I've taken so far. The assignments are difficult and interesting and more importantly, the assignment teaches the core of programming.