CPSC 425 Spring 2008
HW 1: Introduction

CPSC 425 students,
I'm sorry I can't be in class today. Here is the assignment for Thursday. Do as much as you can during today's class period -- you should be able to finish most of it. I encourage you to work together, although you'll each need to do your own writing, and report on your own language for #2. See you Thursday. Feel free to contact me by e-mail if you need to talk before then. - AB
  1. Read "The Perils of JavaSchools" by Joel Spolsky. Discuss your reaction with others in the class. Write a page or so explaining what in this article you agree with and why, what you disagree with and why, and what questions the article raises for you.

  2. Go to the Trexler 263 lab and visit http://www.99-bottles-of-beer.net. This site contains programs in 880 different languages to print all verses of the song "99 bottles of beer on the wall." Browse through some of them and choose a version in a language you don't know that is very different from Java. Print the program, then find out enough about the language (many of the pages have links to pages that describe the languages) to understand how the program works. Write this explanation (do not just print pages from the language manual; explain what is going on in your actual program) and be prepared to explain it to the class.