Overview: The final exam will be comprehensive, but will emphasize topics since the mid-term exam. The most important items below are the Lisp and Postscript and the Ruby: you should know more about them than about Prolog. The final will be worth about 50% more than the mid-term.

• Generic constructs in C, C++, and Java   Genericity:
  • Rec 9: Generic Constructs.

  • What you should know:
    • How C++ uses the template feature to achieve genericity (just the basic ideas and implications, without details of the syntax of templates).
    • How Java can handle an arbitrary Object including code to print an object without knowing until run time just what the object is (accomplished by including a toString method in the class implementing the object, if one is not already provided.
    • How Java can use the Comparable type, which is defined by any class that "implements Comparable" by providing a compareTo method. The examples showed how to handle any type with a compareTo method, including String, the "wrapped" classes Integer and Double (which already have compareTo defined), and any user-defined class with a compareTo method (illustrated with the Rational type in the example in the recitation).

• The Lisp Language (2 recitations)  Lisp basics:
  • Rec 10: Lisp Basics.
  • Rec 11: Lisp Functions and mapcar

  • What you should know:
    • Lisp S-expressions (definition).
    • Lisp notation for use of functions (prefix, fully parenthesized), that is, (+ (* 2 3) (/ 8 4)).
    • Functions to work with Lisp lists: car, and cdr to take lists apart and cons to create lists or put lists together. Also append and list.
    • Basic (recursive) Lisp evaluation.: Given a list to evaluate, separate off the car, which should be a Lisp function. Then recursively evaluate each of the following items in the list (those at the top level). Finally evaluate function with those evaluated items as its actual parameters.
    • True (t) and false (nil in Lisp, and predicates: functions that return t or nil.
    • Lisp's version of if-the-else: cond and its syntax -- not evalutated the same way as an ordinary Lisp S-expression. (The successive predicates in the cond are evaluated in order until one is found that returns t.)
    • The syntax for Lisp function definition -- not evaluated like an ordinary Lisp S-expression, but absorbed to provide a new user-defined function.
    • Understanding Lisp functions and writing simple recursive Lisp functions.
    • Simple uses of mapcar and apply.
    • The internal representation of S-expressions in Lisp, using Lisp cells: Which are just a pair of pointers, the first to the car and the second to the cdr, except for atoms. In case the cdr pointer is neither null nor a list, one gets a dotted pair.

• The Postscript Language  Postscript basics:
  • Rec 12: Initial Postscript Program.

  • Rec 13: Postscript Business Card.

  • What you should know:
    • The "basics" as listed under items 1 through 11 under "Basic Topics (from the Blue Book)" in the writeup for the first Postscript recitation here. (There is a lot of material here -- you only need a rough understanding of all of it.)
    • Specifics about the "Overlapping boxes" examples in the above web page.
    • Specifics from the "Practice with translate, rotate, and scale" examples in the above web page.
    • Other material from more complex examples and from your business card.

• The Ruby Language  Ruby basics:
  • Rec 14: Ruby basics.

  • What you should know:

• The Prolog Language   Prolog basics:
  • (No Recitation.)

  • What you should know:
    • Specifics about Prolog facts, rules, and queries as illustrated in the example: Prolog knowledgebase example.
    • Simple uses of Prolog in database management type examples, as shown on the write-up about Prolog basics: db_design.html.

• See the previous final exams for sample questions (though be aware that this exam may be considerably different, even covering some different topics):
  • Spring 2004 Final (Answers).
  • Fall 2003 Final (Answers).
  • Spring 2003 Final (Answers).
  • Fall 2002 Final (Answers).
  • Spring 2002 Final (PDF) (Answers (PDF)).
  • Fall 2001 Final.
  • Spring 2001 Final (Answers).

• All the above topics are important, but there is emphasis on:
  • Genericity.
    • Especially the use of the Comparable interface to get genericity in Java.
  • Lisp.
    • Write a simple recursive function in Lisp.
    • Possible other question about Lisp, covering perhaps Lisp recursive evaluation or Lisp internal representation (and dotted pairs).
  • Postscript.
    • Basics, including paths, coordinate transformations, right justifying (or centering) text.
    • Perhaps give you a Postscript program or code fragment and ask questions about it.
  • Ruby.
    • Basics of Ruby classes.
    • Object-oriented version of regular expressions in Ruby.
    • See the ruby recitation for what to study.
  • Prolog.
    • We didn't do much with Prolog.
    • The initial knowledgebase example; Prolog knowledgebase example.
    • Lecture about relational databases in Prolog: db_design.html
  • Earlier parts of the course:
    • Especially grammars, parsers, and syntax-directed translation.