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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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101 - 125 of 533 Reviews for Programming Languages, Part A

By Ondrej P

Jan 25, 2018

One of the best CS courses available, if not the best. It enlightened me more on many functional programming idioms and concepts than any other book / course. However, this course is definitely not for total beginners, prior basic experience with programming is required.

By Ellen P

Aug 29, 2022

Fantastic course and an impressive teacher. I've mostly worked with Python and JavaScript, so it was great to see a different approach to programming. The emphasis on recursion and currying was tough for a while, but there was plenty of practice in the homeworks!

By Jimmy C C

Mar 16, 2020

I watch the video lectures as supplements for a course I am taking at my university, which happens to be based on this course. I feel compelled to say that this is one of the best courses I have ever taken and Dan Grossman is the best instructor I have ever had.

By Andrew C

Jun 12, 2020

I wanted a friendly introduction to the ML language family and got a lot out of this. This is the languages course I wish I had in undergrad. I found Standard ML really enjoyable to work with and appreciated the focus of the course material. Highly recommended.

By Krystian S

Sep 7, 2016

One of the best courses in which I've participated. Additionaly along with Tim Roughgarden my favourite professor as far as my familiarity with coursera and other mooc sites is concerned. Love to see his passion to the subject and become "infected" with it :)

By vijayanand n

Oct 12, 2021

This is a great course for any programmer. It delves more on how things work in programming languages why they are like that, rather than how to do things using programming languages. It does require dedication and the exercises and assignments are not easy.

By 唐澤裕智

Mar 27, 2022

Awesome course for anyone who likes programming. I learned a lot, and is helping me write better code in any language. Very thoughtfully planned, meticulous execution for videos, lecture notes, homework assignments. I enjoyed peer-reviewing fellow students.

By Sam S

Mar 20, 2020

Excellent course. At first, it felt quite challenging. But, once the material started to settle in my mind everything began to make sense. Professor Grossman does an outstanding job explaining things from basic principles and building up to larger concepts.

By Rafael L

Jun 15, 2017

Maybe the best course I've ever taken in my whole life. If you want to learn more about functional programming this is the course you're looking for. The videos and exercises are very explanatory and will give you a deep understanding about all the topics.

By Patrick M

Mar 7, 2024

Absolutely loved this course - lectures are wonderful, professor is knowledgeable, clear, and concise. I did not have previous experience in functional programming so I found the material quite hard, but therefore all the more challenging and interesting.

By Vasilis K

Sep 16, 2017

With this course I realised that functional programming is not just a hype or a trend. I really became invested in this way of thinking. The course is great, Dan is a great instructor and even more important is that the mentors are doing an excellent job!

By Abhishek V

Mar 11, 2020

Absolutely mind-blowing course. This is a must do specialization for anyone who in interested in Programming in general. Can't thank enough Prof Dan for putting this together. I really really really wish he does a complete specialization on Haskell now.

By Бунта А В

Aug 23, 2017

Excellent course. Best of all I've studied here. An interesting presentation of the material, well-planned homework. Also got a great motivation :) And, I hope I became a better programmer than I was :)

I will be glad to continue my studies in Part B

By Sony

Aug 4, 2020

I am very pleased with this Course,

I learned a lot, Dan is a great teacher. I was a bit worried about the pre-requisites because I only had some knowledge of C and assembly but could manage to do it with a lot of practice :) I really recommend it.

By Visual J

Jul 28, 2017

I really think it a wonderful course that I've never experienced before, thanks to the instructor, Professor Dan, I've learnt a lot about PL and FP, which seems opening another new window towards another new programming world.Strongly recommended!

By Sam R

Jul 15, 2021

Fantastic course - it's real computer science. Request to Professor Grosman: Would you please combine the 3 course sections in to one packaged certificate? I like that the course is broken up but the 3 certificate URL's is logistically difficult

By Nilanjan M

Jul 1, 2021

Great course to push yourself from Advanced-Beginner programmer to intermediate one. I have taken many courses in this domain. This course is one of the top-notch courses. The only quality course, in my experience, that matches the level of CS50.

By Greg G

Dec 3, 2017

A challenging but awesome course that teaches a lot about functional programming. Really needs 6-8 hours per week though. Has great PDF lecture notes, homework structure and you can easily use the learned concepts in other programming languages.

By Anton

Feb 9, 2024

Very nice introduction to FP and Dan definitely has his heart in the course. The weak points are Emacs (but can use other editors or use online sandboxes) and peer reviews (I got a review with 3 points for every task and comments like "cxatiu")

By ncm p

Aug 1, 2022

Very thorough course on programming languages and their concepts. Despite being a self-taught software engineer (more like a beginner-intermediate programmer) for 5 years, I found some of the material new and advanced, which surprised me a lot!

By Anurag S

Nov 19, 2016

An interesting introduction to functional programming. This course can be a little more challenging compared to other MOOC's if you do not have prior programming experience. You will learn a lot about the concepts behind programming constructs.

By Louis N

Feb 26, 2022

Really really good course. The pacing and the rate at which the difficulty goes up felt really really good. I don't know if I'll ever use functional programming but I'm happy to have learned a little about it either way. Will do part B and C.

By Julian H

Oct 10, 2016

The best introduction to functional programming I've seen. The course lectures make for a smooth learning experience and the exercises in the assignments range from simple to moderately challenging and are a good complement for the lectures.

By Axel B

Dec 23, 2021

This course (including parts B and C) was truly a journey, and a delightful one!

Thank you so much for putting this together, and transmitting this wealth of knowledge with so much enthusiasm. This was truly engating engaging as result.

By FURKAN E

Dec 19, 2021

That's is the most programmatic and foundational course I've ever seen, and I've seen many courses. It's teaches concepts that'll help you wherever you in the programming field. Thanks to Dan Grossman for creating this amazing course!