This is a more or less theoretical course which assumes programming experience with Pascal-like languages and hopefully some functional language (for example, Lisp). It is this experience that we will draw on for the experimental parts. We will reinforce and extend it some what by our study of Standard ML (SML) and Prolog-like languages, but there is not time for extensive practical work and the kind of theoretical basis that we are striving for, so the emphasis is on the theory.
The course also assumes some computer science theory and mathematical maturity, e.g. computability, finite automata, Turing machines, mathematical induction, and how to write a proof.