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A functional I/O system or, fun for freshman kids

Authors:

Matthias Felleisen,

Robert Bruce Findler,

Shriram KrishnamurthiAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 44, Issue 9

Pages 47 - 58

https://doi.org/10.1145/1631687.1596561

Published: 31 August 2009 Publication History

Abstract

Functional programming languages ought to play a central role in mathematics education for middle schools (age range: 10-14). After all, functional programming is a form of algebra and programming is a creative activity about problem solving. Introducing it into mathematics courses would make pre-algebra course come alive. If input and output were invisible, students could implement fun simulations, animations, and even interactive and distributed games all while using nothing more than plain mathematics. We have implemented this vision with a simple framework for purely functional I/O. Using this framework, students design, implement, and test plain mathematical functions over numbers, booleans, string, and images. Then the framework wires them up to devices and performs all the translation from external information to internal data (and vice versa)--just like every other operating system. Once middle school students are hooked on this form of programming, our curriculum provides a smooth path for them from pre-algebra to freshman courses in college on object-oriented design and theorem proving.

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Cited By

Payne W(2021)Non-visual composing and codingACM SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing10.1145/3458055.3458059(1-6)Online publication date: 21-Mar-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3458055.3458059
Payne WBergner YWest MCharp CShapiro RSzafir DTaylor EDesPortes KKitamura YQuigley AIsbister KIgarashi TBjørn PDrucker S(2021)danceON: Culturally Responsive Creative ComputingProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445149(1-16)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445149
Shapiro RTissenbaum M(2019)New Programming ParadigmsThe Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research10.1017/9781108654555.021(606-636)Online publication date: 15-Feb-2019
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108654555.021
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

A functional I/O system or, fun for freshman kids
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Interactive systems and tools
  2. Interaction design
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Designing software

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGPLAN Notices

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 44, Issue 9

ICFP '09

September 2009

343 pages

ISSN:0362-1340

EISSN:1558-1160

DOI:10.1145/1631687

Issue’s Table of Contents

ICFP '09: Proceedings of the 14th ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Functional programming
August 2009
364 pages
ISBN:9781605583327
DOI:10.1145/1596550
General Chair:
Graham Hutton
University of Nottingham
,
Program Chair:
Andrew Tolmach
Portland State University

Copyright © 2009 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 31 August 2009

Published in SIGPLAN Volume 44, Issue 9

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Cited By

Payne W(2021)Non-visual composing and codingACM SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing10.1145/3458055.3458059(1-6)Online publication date: 21-Mar-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3458055.3458059
Payne WBergner YWest MCharp CShapiro RSzafir DTaylor EDesPortes KKitamura YQuigley AIsbister KIgarashi TBjørn PDrucker S(2021)danceON: Culturally Responsive Creative ComputingProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445149(1-16)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445149
Shapiro RTissenbaum M(2019)New Programming ParadigmsThe Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research10.1017/9781108654555.021(606-636)Online publication date: 15-Feb-2019
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108654555.021
(2019)The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research10.1017/9781108654555Online publication date: 15-Feb-2019
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108654555
Tobin-Hochstadt SVan Horn D(2013)From Principles to Practice with Class in the First YearElectronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science10.4204/EPTCS.136.1136(1-15)Online publication date: 8-Dec-2013
https://doi.org/10.4204/EPTCS.136.1
Morazán M(2013)Functional Video Games in CS1 IIIRevised Selected Papers of the 14th International Symposium on Trends in Functional Programming - Volume 832210.1007/978-3-642-45340-3_10(149-167)Online publication date: 14-May-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-642-45340-3_10
Maggiore GTorsello ASartoretto FCortesi AGoda BSobiesk EConnolly R(2011)Engaging high school students in computer science via challenging applicationsProceedings of the 2011 conference on Information technology education10.1145/2047594.2047608(43-48)Online publication date: 20-Oct-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2047594.2047608
Morazán M(2011)Functional video games in CS1 IIProceedings of the 12th international conference on Trends in Functional Programming10.1007/978-3-642-32037-8_10(146-162)Online publication date: 16-May-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-642-32037-8_10
Sarkar ASheeran MGabbrielli MAbel ACheney J(2020)Hailstorm: A Statically-Typed, Purely Functional Language for IoT ApplicationsProceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Principles and Practice of Declarative Programming10.1145/3414080.3414092(1-16)Online publication date: 8-Sep-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3414080.3414092
Pacheco HMacedo N(2020)ROSY: An elegant language to teach the pure reactive nature of robot programming2020 Fourth IEEE International Conference on Robotic Computing (IRC)10.1109/IRC.2020.00045(240-247)Online publication date: Nov-2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/IRC.2020.00045
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