USCS 2010

Computer Lab

USCS2010

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---+++ Lab environment

The machines you are working with are dual-boot machines that can be booted with
both Linux and Windows as operating systems. Your summer school accounts (starting
with =sc=) should work for both operating systems. Your Solis IDs may work on Windows,
but will not work on Linux.

Both operating systems are equipped with a basic Haskell environment, but the Linux installation
is newer, and we can in principle install new stuff during the summer school, so using Linux
is recommended.

---+++ Teamwork

You are encouraged to work in teams of two. This does not mean that you have to do
everything together and at the same time. But it means that you talk about what you
are planning to do and what you have done with your partner, and that you show each
other your code, or go through difficult parts together. This, in general, increases the
learning experience.

---+++ Assistance and Feedback

Make use of the assistants that are around. They can easily be recognized by their
red badges. They are there to help you. Also, when you have completed a task, show
your code to someone and let them have a look. Writing correct code is good, but
writing elegant, concise, and readable code is important, too. Explaining your code
to someone else is a good test for whether your code is easy to understand for
somebody else.

---+++ Tasks for Wednesday, August 25

Work on the tasks from the previous days, or on your projects. Also, if you have
registered for a student presentation slot, keep in mind that the presentations are
only one day away, so you should start preparing ...

---+++ Tasks for Tuesday, August 24

Here are two new tasks that require you to write parsers for small languages.
You can, for example, use =uu-parsinglib=, the parser combinator library that Doaitse presented
in his lectures.

   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Database.pdf][Database]] (medium; performing SQL-like queries on a toy database)
   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Arrow.pdf][Arrow]] (medium; a very simple programming language)

---+++ Tasks for Monday, August 23

Here are two new tasks that you can work on next to all the others:

   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Profiling.pdf][Profiling]] (medium; trains heap profiling)
   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Unsafe.pdf][Unsafe]] (medium; demonstrates the true evil of =unsafePerformIO=)

---+++ Tasks for Friday, August 20

Here is one new task involving monads:

   * [[%ATTACHURL%/StateMonad.pdf][State monad]] (medium)

Apart from that, either continue with the tasks listed below or work
on your own project.

If you are looking for interesting challenges or inspiration, take a look
at past [[http://icfpcontest.org][ICFP programming contests]]. These
contests run once every year. In total there are now 13 such problems.

---+++ Tasks for Wednesday, August 18 (afternoon lab)

Complete list of tasks available right now, including new ones:

   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Intro.pdf][Lab intro]] (very easy)
   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Lists.pdf][Lists]] (easy)
   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Trees.pdf][Trees]] (easy)
   * [[%ATTACHURL%/TurtleGraphics.pdf][TurtleGraphics]] (*new*; relatively easy, uses graphics and IO)
   * [[%ATTACHURL%/MasterMind.pdf][MasterMind]] (easy; _also download the solution [[%ATTACHURL%/MasterMind.hs][template]]_)
   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Validation.pdf][Validation]] (*new*; easy; _also download the solution [[%ATTACHURL%/Validation.hs][template]]_)
   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Stereograms.pdf][Stereograms]] (medium; _also download the solution [[%ATTACHURL%/SIRDS.hs][template]]_)
   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Wiki.pdf][Wiki]] (*new*; medium; _also download the solution [[%ATTACHURL%/Wiki.hs][template]]_)
   * [[%ATTACHURL%/LambdaRogue.pdf][LambdaRogue]] (*new*; difficult; this is a larger project)
   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Lambdarinth.pdf][Lambdarinth]] (*new*; difficult; this is a larger project)

---+++ Tasks for Wednesday, August 18 (morning lab)

Here is a new task that is relatively easy, but involves some graphics and IO:

   * [[%ATTACHURL%/TurtleGraphics.pdf][TurtleGraphics]]

Here are two task descriptions for larger programming projects that I used
for a university course in the past. These are probably too large to be tackled
within the timespan of the course, and definitely too large to take on alone,
but they can serve as an inspiration:

   * [[%ATTACHURL%/LambdaRogue.pdf][LambdaRogue]]
   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Lambdarinth.pdf][Lambdarinth]]

---+++ Tasks for Tuesday, August 17 (afternoon lab)

---++++ For participants following the A track

You still have time to finish the previous tasks. Apart from that, try to do assignments or
examples from the lectures. Also have a look at !QuickCheck. Perhaps you can define
and run !QuickCheck properties for one of the functions you have already written?

---++++ For participants following the B track

Next to the tasks you have already been given, there are the following options:

   * Try to add !QuickCheck properties to your solution of !MasterMind or Stereograms.
   * Try to have a look at Lennart Augustsson's implementation of the lambda calculus (see [[CourseMaterials]]).
   * Play with Church numerals in Haskell. See below.

---+++++ Church encodings in Haskell

One way to define Church numerals is (note that this requires the =RankNTypes= extension):
<verbatim>
data CNat = CNat (forall a. (a -> a) -> a -> a)
</verbatim>
Try to implement addition, multiplication and exponentiation. Try to define a function that
converts Church numerals into integers:
<verbatim>
cNatToInt :: CNat -> Int
</verbatim>
Also define Church Booleans and other Church encodings in the same way.

---+++ Tasks for Tuesday, August 17 (morning lab)

---++++ For participants following the A track

The task is the same as yesterday. Try to finish the [[%ATTACHURL%/Intro.pdf][Lab intro]]
if you haven't yet finished it. Have a look at the other assignments listed for Monday.
Once you produce some code, make sure that you ask an assistant to look over it and
suggest improvements.

---++++ For participants following the B track:

If you have finished the master mind and/or stereograms assignments, make sure you
get a code review.

---+++ Tasks for Monday, August 16

---++++ For everyone: Primary Goal: Get a working GHC

If you use your own computer, make sure you have the Haskell Platform up and running.
Otherwise, familiarize yourself with the lab computers and make sure you can edit files
and run GHC.

---++++ For participants following the A track: Get started

(Participants of the B track, look below.)

Here are a number of simple assignments that do not require a lot of deep Haskell
knowledge:

   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Intro.pdf][Lab intro]] (_it is recommended to start here_)
   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Lists.pdf][Lists]]
   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Trees.pdf][Trees]]

Also, try some examples from the lecture.

If you feel slightly more adventurous, you can also try the following slightly longer,
but still not very difficult assignments:

   * [[%ATTACHURL%/MasterMind.pdf][MasterMind]] (_also download the solution [[%ATTACHURL%/MasterMind.hs][template]]_)
   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Stereograms.pdf][Stereograms]] (_also download the solution [[%ATTACHURL%/SIRDS.hs][template]]_)

You will get more time to work on these assignments tomorrow.

---++++ For participants of the B track: Haskell style

Before you jump into more challenging projects, I ask you to tackle one
of the following projects:

   * [[%ATTACHURL%/MasterMind.pdf][MasterMind]] (_also download the solution [[%ATTACHURL%/MasterMind.hs][template]]_)
   * [[%ATTACHURL%/Stereograms.pdf][Stereograms]] (_also download the solution [[%ATTACHURL%/SIRDS.hs][template]]_)

With a reasonable amount of Haskell experience, they should not take you
too long. Instead, try to write beautiful, elegant and concise code. 
Feel free to deviate from the templates in order to accomplish these goals!
When you
finish, make sure you get your code reviewed by one of the assistants and
explicitly ask for suggestions on how to improve your style.

Note that there is usually no one best solution to a given problem, or a single
best style. Nevertheless, thinking about code quality is an important issue.

If you finish this early, or want to do something else: Try to think about how the
untyped lambda calculus can be embedded into Haskell. Try to write a few
of the programs from the lecture in your embedded language.

-- Main.AndresLoeh - 18 Aug 2010

Topic attachments
I	Attachment	Action	Size	Date	Who
pdf	Arrow.pdf	manage	105.4 K	24 Aug 2010 - 08:50	AndresLoeh
pdf	Database.pdf	manage	92.8 K	25 Aug 2010 - 15:02	AndresLoeh
pdf	Intro.pdf	manage	156.9 K	14 Sep 2010 - 08:03	DoaitseSwierstra
pdf	LambdaRogue.pdf	manage	147.1 K	18 Aug 2010 - 06:29	AndresLoeh
pdf	Lambdarinth.pdf	manage	81.9 K	18 Aug 2010 - 06:29	AndresLoeh
pdf	Lists.pdf	manage	46.1 K	18 Aug 2010 - 10:25	AndresLoeh
hs	MasterMind.hs	manage	2.4 K	16 Aug 2010 - 06:43	AndresLoeh
pdf	MasterMind.pdf	manage	70.6 K	16 Aug 2010 - 06:43	AndresLoeh
pdf	Profiling.pdf	manage	43.9 K	23 Aug 2010 - 09:50	AndresLoeh
pdf	Rocks.pdf	manage	128.2 K	18 Aug 2010 - 10:26	AndresLoeh
zip	Rocks.zip	manage	8.5 K	18 Aug 2010 - 10:27	AndresLoeh
hs	SIRDS.hs	manage	8.3 K	16 Aug 2010 - 06:43	AndresLoeh
pdf	StateMonad.pdf	manage	69.8 K	20 Aug 2010 - 06:33	AndresLoeh
pdf	Stereograms.pdf	manage	127.3 K	16 Aug 2010 - 06:43	AndresLoeh
pdf	Trees.pdf	manage	49.0 K	15 Aug 2010 - 19:05	AndresLoeh
pdf	TurtleGraphics.pdf	manage	68.8 K	18 Aug 2010 - 06:29	AndresLoeh
pdf	Unsafe.pdf	manage	45.0 K	23 Aug 2010 - 09:49	AndresLoeh
hs	Validation.hs	manage	0.7 K	18 Aug 2010 - 10:35	AndresLoeh
pdf	Validation.pdf	manage	91.6 K	18 Aug 2010 - 10:16	AndresLoeh
hs	Wiki.hs	manage	5.1 K	16 Aug 2011 - 14:15	DoaitseSwierstra
pdf	Wiki.pdf	manage	109.9 K	18 Aug 2010 - 20:41	AndresLoeh

USCS 2010

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